Fallen
by GraysonGirl
Summary: Agent Angel/Angels unlimited: How did Brice fall from Heaven? Who, or what, seduced him into making that decision to shed his halo and join the PODs?
1. Where it started

**A/N For those who watch my dA and see my OC Brice, this isn't him. Yes, when I was little I fancied this character so much that I named my OC after him, but... let's not get into that! XD**

**This is my own little interpretation about how Brice got turned over the to darkside... I've messed with his characterisation a little, but he's a human in chapter 1 and 2, so... he's a little more moral than he is later. Still a bit of a rebel though. Luci is an OC I invented for the fic, and Rufio is... why am I telling you this? Read "Going for Gold" to find out who Rufio is! He's the anti-Reuben and he rocks. Leela might come into later chapters if I see the need.**

**Well, hope you enjoy it ^^ If you understand the pop culture references that I slip in there, or can guess what Luci is short for (it aint hard!) you can have cookies.**

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**7****th**** May, 2257, The De Winter Mansion.**

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, go away."

"…Are you painting your head?"

"No. Go _away_."

Brice loved his brother, he really did, but sometimes… geez, he could really get annoying. Sometimes it was cute that he wanted to spend all his time with him, trying to copy what he did and everything. But, really, when you're 15 years old you just want a little bit of privacy.

Holding the bottle of Hydrogen peroxide in one hand, and a strand of hair in the other, Brice De winter carefully squirted the pale white liquid onto his hair, rubbing it in with his fingers and repeating the process on the next strand. Dominic, his 3 year old brother, was sitting on the floor of the bathroom watching with calculated interest.

"Why are you doing it?" The little boy asked, tilting his head to one side in confusion and wrinkling his freckled nose at the foul smell of whatever it was his big brother was putting on his hair. "It looks silly."

"Of course it looks silly," Brice replied, not taking his eyes off the mirror. "But it won't when it's finished." He nodded to a photo pinned up on the wall in front of him. "I'll look like that."

The photo was printed on the glossy paper that was used way back in the 20th century and showed a man of about 20 with bleached blonde hair cut at crazy angles, some bits long and other parts brutally short. He was dressed in ripped jeans and a mud stained t-shirt, standing on a stage straddling a 20th century style electric guitar- the kind that you needed to plug in to make it work properly. Dominic had seen one of those in his brother's room once, and he knew that mummy didn't know about it. Brice had spent all his savings buying it at an antiques fair last year and screamed at Dominic if he tried to touch it. He called it an axe and told Dom that it was the instrument of the Gods.

Dom thought it was quite silly really.

"He looks like Lily's doll after we dropped it in that neuroprocessor," Dom pointed out. Considering that he was 3 years old, he came out with some pretty intelligent phrases sometimes. Because Dom wasn't like other kids, Dom was a genius. And not in the way most parents talk about their children being gifted, Dom was actually a genuine, no fooling, Mensa IQ levelled, 100% genius. Of course, at the age of 3 he was more interested in following his brother around or playing with his friend Lily.

"Well, Lily's doll has fashion sense then," Brice replied sarcastically, tossing the now empty bottle into the rubbish bin and turning the taps on at the sink. It had taken him a while to get used to his little brother being creepily smart. At first he'd been jealous that his brother was the wonderfully intelligent one that everyone fawned over, but then… he'd realised that being intelligent meant a lot of attention, and Brice much preferred to be alone. Besides, being left alone meant he didn't have to speak to his mother more than required, which was always a blessing.

Though Laura De Winter never said it out loud, Brice knew his mother was disappointed with her eldest son. He'd heard her once say that he was 'just like his father' to one of her friends, and had soon worked out that that must have been a bad thing. That thought had been confirmed a few hours later when he'd done some research at the library about who his dad actually was.

He'd not been thrilled when he found out, and vowed never, ever to tell Dom anything about him. His kid brother was destined for amazing things and didn't need the knowledge that his dad was a failure hanging over him like a dead dog for the rest of his life.

The teenager dunked his head into the now filled up sink and started to rinse the white gunk off his hair. Every so often he would lift his head up to rub the water from his eyes and then dunk his head straight back in. While he was doing this, Dom crept over to the wall and reached up to pull down the photo Brice had pinned there.

He squealed loudly when his brother reached out, without even looking, and slapped his hand away.

"Look. Don't touch," he pointed out bluntly, his voice muffled by the sink. "That's John Levén, he's a God from the 1900's."

"He's a God?" Dom asked, looking confused.

"Figure of speech," Brice replied, finally pulling his head out of the sink and running his fingers through his hair. What had previously been a beautiful chocolate brown was now a muddy bleached blonde. Brice grinned at his reflection and took a towel from the side to dry his hair with. Some of the dye rubbed off onto the expensive fabric, but it didn't matter- there were several more where that came from.

"Mummy's going to be mad at you!" Dom gasped, staring at his brother's hair in disbelief.

"Good," Brice grinned, reaching out to pick some scissors up from the shelf above the mirror.

"Brice, no!" Dom's eyes widened impossibly as his brother began to chop at strands of his hair, the blonde locks falling into the sink and coiling like yellow snakes in the plug hole. He stood transfixed as Brice copied the hair style from the photo in front of him until his expensively styled hair was now something closely resembling a particularly down-on-its-luck hedgehog. "What've you done?!"

"Given myself a mullet," Brice shrugged, putting the scissors back and studying his reflection in the mirror. "With a bit of gel it'll look fine."

"Mummy's going to be so mad," Dom repeated. He was quite right too; they were going to church in an hour, so Laura De Winter would have plenty to be mad about.

"I know. But doesn't it look cool?"

"It looks… scary," Dom said honestly. "It's… yellow."

"Bleach blonde," Brice corrected. "Everyone had hair like this in 1980."

"But it's 2257!" Dom pleaded.

"Fashion comes around in cycles," Brice said passively. "Some of the boys at school have hair like this. Some of my friends."

"But you don't have any fr--" Dom broke off when Brice sent him a withering glare. "I mean… I haven't seen anyone looking like that."

"Then you're not looking hard enough." Brice picked his Sex Pistols t-shirt up from the floor and slipped it on, he'd had to take it off to dye his hair as he hadn't wanted to wreak it.

* * *

"WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR HEAD?!"

Dominic had been right. Laura De Winter was mad.

"I dyed it," Brice replied. "What's for breakfast?"

"You haven't just dyed it, young man!"

"Ok, so I cut it as well," her son shrugged. "I think I'll have beans on toast."

"How… how could you?!" Laura spluttered.

"Quite easily," Brice smiled. "All you need is a box of hair dye and some scissors."

"And you can go change that shirt right now as well, Brice," She continued, looking as if she wanted nothing more than to throw her son out of the window.

"Ok." Brice continued to smile infuriatingly, like he hadn't done anything wrong, and casually turned to walk out of the room.

"And don't smirk at me like that!"

"Sorry, Mother," Brice smirked.

* * *

Brice's bedroom was as non-conforming as he was. Completely messy and covered in antique posters of rock groups from the 1900's and 2000's, he had an electric guitar and amp carefully displayed in the corner and a stack of magazines from series called NME and Zoo. In Brice's opinion they were the most fantastic things he'd ever read, filled with photos of old fashioned instruments and amazingly bonnie looking girls. They were nothing at all like the magazines you could buy now where the girls were all computer generated in a laboratory, these girls were _real. _Sure, they'd been touched up a little bit, but they were still based on a wonderfully gorgeous girls who had actually existed once upon a time. At one point he'd put a few of the posters from the magazines up on the walls, but his uncle had ripped them all down after an argument they'd had. Now, to keep them all safe, Brice kept them neatly wrapped up and under his bed where no-one could find them and ruin them. Magazines like this were like gold dust nowadays. Ever since that war which had ended in supposed world peace, there'd been a complete overturn of the media- including new rulings about what you were allowed to print. A blow to hormonal boys everywhere was the ruling on lads' mags- no real girls allowed, and nothing too suggestive.

If Brice actually had the need to socialise, he could become very popular with these magazines of his.

In addition to the historic magazines he'd collected, he also dressed in clothing from that era as well. Demin jeans and thick soled boots rather than the tracksuits and trainers most of his schoolmates paraded around in.

Fully obeying of his mother's orders, he took his shirt off and threw it down onto the pile on the floor and took another out of his drawers. It was exactly the same as the one he'd taken off. White, with pink and yellow writing proclaiming _"Never mind the bollocks- here's the SeX PisTOLs"._

He pulled it on in place of his old one and walked downstairs, smirking knowingly to himself and leaning against the doorway of the sitting room.

"Did I not just tell you to change your shirt?" Laura asked.

"I did, Mother," Brice replied sweetly. "See? This one is cleaner."

"Bring me your shirt drawer, right now!" Laura ordered, folding her arms sternly and clearly meaning business. "I'm going to pick your shirt for you."

"Deal." Brice grinned and trotted back upstairs, returning a few moments later holding the drawer that contained his t-shirts. All of them were identical to the one he was wearing right now.

"Ok, pick one."

* * *

One hour later, after a breakfast that consisted of a stony silence between Laura and Brice, the family sat, accompanied by Laura's brother, in the Lady of Lourdes church for the morning service.

Despite his attire and attitude, Brice believed in God far more than his mother or uncle did. All they did on a Sunday at church was whisper about Dom's future whilst the boy in question was sitting in Sunday school confusing the poor teacher with philosophical questions that a 3 year old shouldn't think about, while Brice attempted to get a spiritual revelation and try to ignore the two adults next to him.

"_Dear Lord, grant me the strength to not punch my mother for being a complete and utter cow…"_ Brice prayed in his head, silently begging whoever was up there to listen to him._ "And also, give me the power to protect my brother from my reptile relatives, he's only a kid."_

* * *

**Angel watch centre, Heaven.**

Although Brice probably wouldn't believe anyone if they told him, someone was actually listening to him praying. But it wasn't who you'd really expect.

Orlando leant back in the padded chair in his cubicle in the angel watch centre and listened carefully to everything Brice was thinking. He'd been listening for days now, and felt completely helpless.

The boy clearly needed a guardian angel, but he wasn't sending out the call to get himself one. Guardian angel assigning was a tricky business, you can't just decide a human needs one and send him or her in to do the job, the human needs to really really _need_ an angel to protect them and guide them. Brice, it seemed, was too stubborn to realise that he needed some help in his life. From what Orlando had been hearing from his tiny booth in the watch centre, the boy was convinced that he could do it all by himself. He wasn't asking anyone to help him, he was asking for someone to help him help his brother! It was the sort of selflessness that was rare in humans, and touched Orlando deeply.

But, as selfless as the boy was, he was far too strong willed for his own good!

All Orlando could do was boost the light levels around him and try and send him some good vibes whilst he slept. Orlando figured that if he could get the boy to find his father, then he might have the good sense to move in with him, and take Dom with him. But… after all his influencing, Brice finally researched his dad. After that, Orlando had been unable to get any paternal vibes through to the boy. He hadn't a clue what Brice had found out, but it cut him so deep he wasn't even letting himself think about it.

Orlando was an amazing angel, and as such he knew that he couldn't delve into a human's subconscious thoughts like that. It just wasn't right.

The Latino angel pressed the light levels button on the screen in front of him. Blackness clouded the screens.

"Oh, My God…" the angel breathed, standing up and taking a step back from the screen, his back hitting the wall of the cubicle behind him.

Why hadn't it worked? And why had… _that_ happened? Orlando had been watching Brice for days, and hadn't felt a trace of the Powers of Darkness about the boy's person- quite the opposite in fact, Orlando knew that the PODs wouldn't be able to touch a boy like that- they'd have to try really hard to get him, they couldn't simply swarm in like they did normally. The angel's deep brown eyes clouded with worry, and he quickly put on the headset that was hanging on the wall next to him.

"Michael? We need help."

* * *

**Lady of Lourdes church, Earth**

"Ouch!" Brice slapped the back of his neck, anticipating a mosquito bite or something, but was curious to notice that nothing was actually on his palm when he brought it back, nor was there any mark on his neck.

"_Luci! Stop it!"_

"Huh?" Brice could have sworn he'd heard someone behind him, he turned around to look, and frowned when all he could see was empty space behind him. They always sat on the back row- the incense made Dom sneeze otherwise- so Brice knew he'd have been able to see whoever it was. "Weird…"

"_Shut up, Rufio!"_

There it was again! This time it was a different voice, much softer than the first one. Brice tried to turn around again, but his uncle firmly took him by the arm and turned him around, hissing that they needed to set an example.

An example? Jonas obviously didn't know that talking to his sister in church was rude then.

Brice reluctantly stayed turned around, even though he was sure he could hear giggling behind him and was certain there was someone there. Instead, he tried to distract himself by concentrating on what the priest was saying, but all he could hear was that annoying giggling and his mother whispering to his uncle.

"All I'm saying is that if we push him into that school of Brice's a year earlier, chances are he'll excel a lot faster."

To the untrained ear, it might seem like Laura was doing the right thing, but to Brice- who'd spent the last 3 years listening to his mother talk like this- it was a clear sign that Laura wanted her son to excel so he could make them money. Imagine! Genius boy graduates Pheonix school for the gifted at age 7! They'd be richer than kings on all the publicity, and Brice knew it. Their first son hadn't turned out to be the lovely little pup they'd wanted, and luckily for them Dom fit the bill perfectly. Why… they could forget all about having Brice if Dominic proved to be as clever as the IQ tests said he was.

"Oh, finally," Laura whispered when the priest began his final address. No-one, apart from Brice, heard her, so her happy, social, church-going persona was maintained for all those around them. Once the priest had finished, the congregation began to slowly file out until only the De Winters were left.

"Come along, Brice," Laura said cheerfully, taking Brice's hand and trying to lead him out of the church. "We need to collect Dominic from Sunday school."

"You go ahead, I'll catch up," Brice answered, pulling his hand away from Laura's and stepping back into the main section of the church. The priest had finished packing up, so Brice was free to investigate privately.

He glanced over his shoulder to check that he was definitely alone, and carefully closed the large doors so he had complete privacy.

"Ok, show yourselves," He called, walking into the centre of the chapel and looking around. "I could hear you, so I know you're here."

Brice was open minded enough to believe in ghosts, and was logical enough to realise that if they did exist there was little they could do to hurt him. After all, they were dead, he was alive. He spread his arms and called out again, walking around the centre of the chapel as he did so.

"Come on! Show me!" He challenged. "I won't run."

"_Luci! I told you not to pinch him like that! Now he knows we're here!"_

"Ha! See! I heard you again!" Brice called gleefully. "Where are you?" Maybe at first he'd entertained the notion that it could just be a couple of kids, but those names sounded far too old fashioned to be from this era.

"_Ah… shit. Come on, Rufio…"_

Brice nearly jumped out of his skin when the voice sounded right next to his ear, he spun round quickly to see who it was, but… there was nothing there. A hand rested on his shoulder, and he turned around once again. Only this time, he definitely saw someone. A boy, his age, stood right in front of him, dressed in very old fashioned clothes.

Brice screamed.

"Shut up!" The second voice was behind him now, and a hand firmly clamped itself over his mouth, silencing the scream that had echoed around the room. Brice tried to turn and look who it was, but was held firmly in place by the owner.

"I imagine this is quite of a shock," The boy in front of him said calmly, pacing along the centre of the chapel. "But.. You're a smart lad, I'm sure you can handle it." He had honey coloured hair in teeny little dreadlocks, and a red bandana tied around them to hold them in place. His clothes were a lot like Sade's, but clearly a lot more worn out than his were, the rips in the knees of his jeans looked genuine, and the safety pins on one leg looked like they were a necessity rather than a fashion statement. "I'm Rufio."

"And I'm Luci," the one behind him greeted. He was the chipper one Brice had heard the first time. He pronounced his name Loo-ki, and Brice was certain it was a made up name. "Now, I'm going to take my hand off your mouth, so don't scream, ok?"

He removed his hand from Brice's mouth and walked around to join his friend. He was dressed relatively the same, but his hair was a mad auburn colour spiked up at all angles and decorated with threads and beads. "Wow… your hair is so cool… John Levén, right?"

"Yeah," Brice replied, sounding a little shaky- hey, the guys had just appeared out of thin air, for heaven's sake!- but smiling in spite of himself. "Did it this morning."

"Did your mum blow?"

"…excuse me?"

"Was she mad?" Rufio translated, guessing that Brice wasn't exactly as fluent in the slang of the 1960's as they were.

"Yeah, totally. She narked out." Ok, so it seemed Brice did know a little slang. "Who… who are you?"

"Didn't we just go through this?" Luci asked, sounding a little confused. He sat down on the front row of the pews and rested his head on his arms against the ledge. "Your memory is kinda slow. I'm Luci, he's Rufio, and you're Brice."

"Ok… _What _are you?"

"Well I'm a Scorpio," Luci grinned.

"We're the Powers of Darkness," Rufio supplied, ignoring Luci's attempt at humour. Sade cocked one eyebrow quizzically, indicating for Rufio to continue. "We're sort of… dead."

"But, looking great!" Luci interjected.

"And you're here because…?" Brice asked. These guys looked cool, yes, but… they'd just said they were dead. Ghosts only turned up when… when did ghosts turn up? "I'm not going to die am I?"

"How should I know?" Rufio laughed, playfully punching Brice on the shoulder. "That's an angel's job."

"So you're not angels?"

Rufio and Luci laughed like that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard, Rufio was even clutching his sides and holding onto the alter for support. "Of course we're not!" He laughed. "You think angels dress like this? They're all about the halos, man!"

Finally, the two boys recovered themselves enough for at least one of them to continue, Rufio hoisted himself up onto the alter and sat down on the edge of it so he was looking down at Brice.

"The Powers of Darkness live in hell," he explained, leaning back rummage down behind the alter as he spoke. "But, we're totally misunderstood. We _help_ people." He straightened up again, holding a bottle of wine in one hand. "I knew priests kept a stash somewhere."

"Isn't that communion wine?" Luci asked.

"Yeah, but it still tastes good," The boy shrugged, uncorking the bottle and taking a swig. "Anyway, as I was saying. The Powers of Darkness help people. People like you."

"What makes you think I need help?" Brice sounded defensive. "Why have you been spying on me?"

"We spy on everyone," Rufio explained. "It's for their own good. Everyone who lives and breathes on earth, we have a file on them. And when things go wrong in their lives… we offer some positive re-enforcement. We don't try and tell you that you're doing things wrong or try and change your way of thinking- not like Angels- no… we help you with what's bugging you. We get rid of people who are in your way," he paused and grinned, climbing off the alter to stand next to Brice once more, lowering his voice to a whisper. "We protect people when they need it, and listen to you when no-one else will."

"Like… who?"

"Like Dominic."

* * *

**A/N There we go, chapter 1... good? bad? Hate the way I write Brice? Love the way I write Brice? Hit review.**


	2. Where it almost ended

**AN: Well, I said I'd continue when I got reviews… and I just got two of them! **

**Thanks very much guys ^^ **

**Note, thanks to Puredeadthingy for pointing out a couple of grammar things that I have now edited. Hopefully.**

**Chapter 2**

"W-What are you talking about?"

"We know that you worry about Dominic," Rufio smiled, idly toying with one of the dreds in his hair and looking annoying superior. "We can see your dreams and your fears… we can see everything that you desire and hope for."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Luci pointed out, noticing the worried expression on Brice's face. "Caring about your little brother so much is a wonderfully selfless thing to do, it's so… noble."

It was strange, but what Luci and Rufio were saying sounded comforting and everything, but Brice couldn't shake the odd sensation that both of them were smirking at him as they spoke. It was something about their eyes…. They didn't look like a normal person's. They were…soulless. Completely empty and lacking the comforting shine that you'd expect.

"Like I said, we can help you."

"How?"

"Simple," Rufio clicked his fingers and a small amount of smoke seeped out of his hand, twisting around in the air and hissing softly as it started to form shapes as the demon boy spoke. "You scratch our backs, we'll scratch yours…" The grey smoke thickened in Rufio's palm, billowing gently through his fingers before solidifying into a black feather quill. "It's a really simple exchange."

"All you need is to sign this paper," Luci explained, taking a yellowing roll of paper out of thin air and unfurling it in an overly-theatrical manner. "And we'll help you… Go on."

Brice reached out for the pen in Rufio's hand and carefully held it, turning it over in his grasp curiously before looking up at the pair and frowning. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," Luci assured him, going to the alter and placing the paper down on the clean, white cloth. "Just sign and we help you."

"So, if you're scratching my back…?" Brice quoted. Now he was the one smirking smugly. He was a De Winter for crying out loud! He knew better than anyone that nothing in life came for free. Signing a piece of paper (especially one that's just appeared out of thin air!) without reading it is just plain stupidity. Brice knew far better than that. He might not like his mother and her odious family, but at least he had their brains for business.

"You… scratch ours by doing a couple of…. jobs"

"And how would I do that?" Brice didn't like the way they both kept pausing and exchanging glances as they spoke. It was unsettling and very suspicious.

"By dying," Rufio said simply, as if it was the most innocent decision in the world. "You see, we don't deal with cash and junk like that… we like things that are, how shall I put this? Closer to home." He reached out and touched Brice's chest, placing his hand over the boy's heart and tracing a small circle there. "Did you know, that your heart is one of the most vital organs in your body? The Egyptians even thought it was more important than the brain, the heart was given a casket all of its own, and the brain was given to the cat to eat."

His history lesson had a point.

"The Egyptians realised that your heart is the way to your soul, some people say it's the eyes, and maybe they're right, but your heart is like the lock on the door. Is there any wonder that Valentines Day is based around this organ?"

"You… want my heart?" Brice asked nervously, taking a step back.

"Ew. God no, we're not the wicked stepmother!" Rufio laughed. "No, we want your soul."

Luci grinned hungrily, joining Rufio in front of Brice. "Your soul is the most valuable part of your body. Even after you die, your soul is the thing that goes to heaven- or hell. It's what binds you to reality, if you didn't have a body for your soul to live in, you'd be stuck in limbo forever. And believe me, that's _not_ a nice place to spend eternity."

"What could you do with my soul?" Brice asked, having listened carefully without interrupting at all, despite being quite freaked out by the whole concept. He'd never really put much scope in how his soul affected his life, he'd just considered it one of the things they teach you in Sunday school and tell you about in church. He believed it in, but never thought to acknowledge it. "It's not like you could use it or anything. My soul isn't helping my body work."

"True. Most people say that your soul is basically religious talk for DNA," Rufio agreed. "After all, DNA has been proven to give you the traits that people claim your soul does."

"Yeah," Brice agreed cautiously. "I guess."

"So, that means your soul isn't really that valuable. Is it? It's not like we're asking for your DNA, just a teeny tiny part of you that might not even be that useful!"

"But didn't you just say--" Brice interrupted.

"Nah! I was just quoting Ancient Egypt, and who seriously listens to those dorks? They thought cats were Gods!" Rufio laughed. "You're a smart kid… why do you put so much faith in something you can't prove?"

"I…don't know…" Rufio had just completely contradicted everything he'd just said about your soul being important by felling it with a single piece of science… surely, in this century, they were advanced enough to not believe in such silly notions as souls? Come to think of it, Brice had just accepted the priests talk about immortal souls without questions. Where was the proof that his soul was really doing him any good in the long run? Rufio and Luci said all it did was make sure you went to heaven when you died, and shouldn't he be more concerned about what was happening when he was alive?

"I guess… you're sort of right," He murmured, looking at the quill he was holding and walking over to the paper on the alter. "What's my soul done for me lately?"

"Nothing." Except keep you bound to reality and giving you the feelings and personality you have right now. But, hey, Rufio wasn't about to tell their latest catch that piece of information just yet! A soul like Brice's, pure and selfless, was a one in a lifetime find. Something their master would reward them handsomely for obtaining. "Besides. We're not going to do anything to it- we'll just protect it for you. You know, make sure it doesn't get broken. It's probably worthless, but… as we said, whatever happens you know it's nice and safe with us!"

"Yeah…" Brice put the pen on the page and began to write his name on the dotted line, and he probably would have finished it too, if it hadn't been for the sound of the church doors opening and a voice calling out "Brice! Come on!"

"Huh?" He took the pen off the page and looked round, smiling at the sight of Dom running up the aisle to hug him.

Luci and Rufio were nowhere to be seen. Nor was the piece of paper Brice had almost signed his soul away on. The only reminder that anyone had been there, was the black feather quill in Brice's hand.

**Angel watch centre, Heaven**

"That was close."

"Too close."

Orlando ripped the headphones off his ears and threw them onto the floor. "Michael! We need to help him!"

"Calm down Orlando," The arch angel smiled in the omniscient way that made trainee angels like Orlando feel like they were being brain scanned. "Brice is in no immediate danger."

"No immediate danger?!" The Latino angel rose to his feet and pointed at the screen. "He was practically shaking hands with the powers of darkness! How can you call that no immediate danger? They just told him to kill hims-" His impatience was quelled by the simple act of Michael pressing one finger to the angel's lips. He smiled divinely and moved his hand to place it on the boy's shoulder.

"Think, Orlando. What do you know about humans?"

"That… they need to work it out themselves?" Orlando said slowly, having heard this speech before when he was younger and more reckless when it came to protecting the inhabitants of the green and blue planet.

"And?"

"That angels don't need to intervene when they can do it themselves," Orlando completed, slowly sinking back down into the seat and looking down at the floor. "Sorry, Michael."

"Don't apologise. It's wonderful that you care so much about this boy," Michael ruffled the angel boy's silky brown locks and sent millions of tiny angel vibes tingling through his scalp. "When Brice is ready for help he'll call for it…" The arch angel glanced over his shoulder into another cubicle where a brunette angel was playing a guitar and singing as he transmitted vibes to earth. "And when he does, we'll be there."

**Lady of Lourdes church, Earth**

"Who were you talking to, Brice?" Dom asked, taking his big brother by the hand and pulling him towards the doorway of the church. "And where did you find that pretty feather?"

Brice looked down at the quill in his hand and frowned. He couldn't be imagining it… he just couldn't! Things like that were impossible to imagine. If it had been some other sort of… vision he'd have thought it was some sort of heavenly hallucination brought on by communion wine or lack of sleep. But to see two… things so unique like that was too out-landish for even Brice to invent.

"I found it," He said absently, handing the feather to his little brother. "Here, you can carry it if you like. But give it back when we get home, k?"

The boy took the quill and gazed at it in the kind of wonder only a child can have. He nodded eagerly, proud to be trusted with such a grand item, if only for the short journey home. "Come on, Mummy and Uncle are waiting!"

Brice allowed Dominic to pull him out of the church and outside towards the car, he didn't say anything and continued to frown gently and stare at the church. His chest still tingled where Rufio had touched him. The soul… what if they were right? What if it was just some useless thing inside of him that he'd never need? And what if all it took to help keep Dom safe was letting them keep it? They couldn't physically take it from him- all that talk about stopping it 'breaking' had just been a figure of speech.

He'd once read a play for ancient literature about a man who sold his soul to the devil. The man, a doctor, had been so consumed by the horror of what he'd done that he went mad. Brice knew this was just a story, but he couldn't shake the feeling from his mind that he'd just nearly lost something potentially valuable.

**Demon HQ- portal zone.**

"That went SHIT!" Luci yelled, rounding on Rufio and slapping him around the face with all the strength he could muster. They were stood in the portal, having just arrived back at hell with a job not well done. "We almost had him!" He raised his hand to strike his partner again, but was stopped by someone grabbing his hand from behind.

"Don't be like that, baby," Maia said softly, stroking the demon's face and giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"What happened?" Leela asked, joining her friend and wrapping her arm around Rufio's waist. "Did you not get the little human's soul?"

"No, we didn't," Luci hissed, glaring at Rufio. "If he hadn't wasted his time with all that dumb ancient Egypt crap we'd have had him signed off and soulless in 5 minutes!"

"We couldn't force him to do it- it doesn't work like that," Rufio said, sounding annoyingly composed as he shrugged his jacket off and started to lead Leela out of the portal area. No one had come to meet them- they'd failed, nobody needed to be around to acknowledge that. "He has to do it willingly or it won't do us any good. He'll just die and go to heaven like all the other pure and innocent fuckers."

"I'm sure you'll get him soon," Maia grinned. "A cutie like that is bound to realise that it's so much more fun down here."

"He'll get so bored with all those immature Halo girls," Leela agreed. "He'll have to come down here for someone on his intellectual level."

"And I'm sure we can help him with that," Maia smirked, catching her soul mate's eye and winking.

"But you know you have to stay with me, babe," Luci pouted, nibbling Maia's ear until she giggled and batted him away. "Some silly little soulless human can't be as good as me and Rufio."

"What if he dies?" Rufio cut in. "I mean, before we get his soul."

"What are the chances of that?" Luci snorted. "He's a little rich git, chances are he never leaves the house. He's a complete loner- no way he's going to do anything dangerous like fall off the freeway!"

"Hahahah! Wouldn't that be a sight to see!" Maia cackled. "You go to all this trouble to try and win him over only for him to have some accident and end up an angel!"

"Don't be dense- that so could never happen!" Luci gave his girl a playful smack on the butt. "Be more optimistic"

"Yeah! It'd be… what? A one in 100 million chance or something?" Leela smirked.

"Totally unlikely."

* * *

"Orlando?"

"Yes?" The angel looked curiously at his headmaster, trying to puzzle out the expression on the man's face.

"I need you to wait by the 8-80 freeway in Brice's century."

"Why?" Now Orlando looked even more confused.

"Just… trust me on this one, ok?"

* * *

Brice was feeling restless. More than restless- he felt edgy. He couldn't sit still for more than a few seconds and was starting to irritate his mother.

"Go outside and fidget if you have to," She said snappishly, looking up from the plastic surgery catalogue. "Or do it quietly."

"I think I'm going for a walk," Brice said quietly, carefully standing up from the arm chair he'd been musing in. He hugged Dom on the way past, ruffling his hair and for some reason feeling a strange compulsion to smell his hair and hold onto him for longer than he usually did. "Hey…" he took the quill out of his pocket and handed it to the child. "Keep it."

Dom grinned happily. "You can borrow it when ever you want to," He said sincerely. "Know why?"

"Why?" Brice smiled.

"Because you're the best big brother in the world, and you're always going to be there to play with me!"

"I sure am," Brice took his jacket from the hook and nodded to his mother. He'd never felt a need to hug her or touch her, and wasn't ever concerned by it. "Be back soon," he shrugged.

Brice walked aimlessly through the town, occasionally stopping to watch groups of people as they walked by. Old couples, or children playing, even groups of kids his own age just standing and talking- wasting the evening in each other's company. He'd read that in the 21st century it had been dangerous for people to walk around at night, not now though. Now a person could walk down the street with anything on show and no-one would try and stop them- chances were they'd help them across the street.

He stopped as he saw a group of boys his age. He recognised two from school- boys in his class- but didn't think he'd ever seen the other before. He had a sort of… aura about him. He looked so confident and at ease in his surroundings, yet set apart from them in a way. As if he was higher than it all, but was perfectly happy to be down with the boys he was with. Brice folded his arms against an imaginary chill and watched as the boys talked and laughed together. An outsider looking in- he guessed he'd never be anything else. Funny, he didn't really mind most of the time. But for some reason tonight he was uncomfortably aware that he didn't have anyone to go and talk to about how nervous he was. Nobody to listen to him.

A curious tingle passed over his body and a spark like electricity ran through him as he made eye contact with the Latino. He blinked back confusion and smiled awkwardly, the boy smiled back and beckoned for him to come over. Brice just shook his head and looked down at the floor, quickly carrying on with his destinationless journey.

Eventually he found himself standing at the edge of the town, where the freeway bridge met the motorway and connected to the rest of the world. He knew he shouldn't, but he walked out onto the bridge and sat on the barrier that looked out over the winding roads below. The bridge was deserted, but cars rumbled away underneath him on their way to god knows where, and Brice found himself staring up at the sky.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice said behind him.

"Yes," Brice didn't know what he was talking about, but he knew that he agreed.

"The stars are so bright, aren't they?" Brice recognised the Latino boy from the town centre he'd seen earlier. The sensation in his chest returned and he once again found himself unable to make any eye contact with him.

"I think… my dad used to talk about them," Brice found himself saying, then blushing as he'd never told anyone that before.

"I know," Orlando smiled, walking up and standing next to the pale human staring out over the freeway, not knowing what was in store, but subconsciously aware of it.

"You do?" Brice looked up and caught the boy's gaze, feeling the strange electric pulse in his chest as before. "How do you--"

His sentence was never finished, as just at that moment a car swerved off course. Crashing right into the barrier that Brice was sitting on and sending him plummeting over the edge towards the traffic below.


	3. Mission: Enrol at Angel school!

**AN: Wow, this got written quick! Usually I'm very slow at updating. Anyway, here we have my own personal take on how Brice was when he first came to heaven. I think that Hendrix and Jools from "Keeping it Real" are just the sort of people Brice would make friends with, and Hendrix seems like he'd be a good soul mate- obviously I've had to invent Jools and Hendrix's pasts a lot.**

Chapter 3

Dying is, for want of a better word, weird. Everyone sees something different. Some people, for example, religious folk, will get the stereotypical white light, pearly gates and talk with an arch angel- if he's not busy of course, which he usually is. Others, those more inclined to atheism, will have a nice relaxing whoosh down a tunnel before arriving in the after life in peace and comfort.

Of course, for the unlucky ones, say… someone who'd just fallen off a freeway into the path of a car, they'll enter heaven with a very big concussion.

Brice tried to sit up and for a few seconds could feel shattered glass and bent metal all around him. He could hear people screaming and sirens squealing in the background. Most of all, however, he could hear some really annoying music… like something from a spinning top you play with as a child and then get bored of when you discover action figures and comic books. It felt like it was piercing through his entire skull, and he couldn't raise his hands to block it out! But, almost as soon as all this was happening, it ended.

He felt a huge pulse in his chest, like being punched and found himself surrounded by… clouds? This time he was able to raise his hands properly, and he did so, rubbing his eyes to try and puzzle out what he was seeing. Oddly enough, there was absolutely no blood on his body, nor were his clothes ripped. He was absolutely certain that he'd just fell off a freeway. He remembered how much it had hurt- that's for sure- and could even tell you what colour car it had been that hit him. Green, by the way. Was this a hospital then? It sure didn't look like one.

Climbing to his feet he looked down at himself and frowned. Logic proclaimed that he shouldn't be able to even move, let alone walk, and yet here he was, doing it with absolute ease. He took a tentative step forward, expecting to fall through the cushy cloud floor, and was amazed to note that it was as hard as concrete.

"Where the hell am I?" He whispered, noting that the air smelt sickly like violets. That humming top music was still playing in the background too, and doing nothing to help his headache. So _this_ was what concussion felt like. Hmm, interesting. He hadn't realised that they caused hallucinations. Maybe that was a side effect of all the morphine they must be pumping into him in the hospital? He bet Dom was bugging all the nurses by asking them questions about all the machines and—

Dom!

Now Brice really started to panic. He couldn't just stand here being concussed when his little brother was probably worried sick about him! He roughly pinched his arm to try and wake himself up and paled when it didn't seem to do anything. Gripping his skin even tighter this time he pinched again- harder. Still nothing.

"You're Brice, right?"

"Leave me alone, I'm trying to wake up." Brice didn't bother to turn around and acknowledge whoever it was talking to him. Why bother having a conversation with a figment of your imagination? It would just waste time.

"I'm Orlando, I was sent to come and get you," The angel was wearing the typical white robe that Christians associate angels with. He'd heard Brice was a theist, so had been told to play on that role. It was rare for children born after the 20th century to need an archetypal angel, but sometimes they cropped up. It was mostly the adults they had to use this one on.

"Very nice, can you leave me alone now?" Brice asked, mentally slapping himself for succumbing to this hallucination that appeared to be very very beautiful. And male. Why the hell had he just thought that?! Stupid concussion. "I'm trying to wake up, and it's not working."

"Brice? Uh… you're probably not going to wake up anytime soon," Orlando said sheepishly. He was relatively new at this meet and greet tactic and wasn't too confident on what he should be saying. "You sort of fell off the freeway."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Brice asked, stopping pinching himself and turning around to talk to the white robed boy. Ok, maybe he could spend a little time to address the creation of his mind for a little while. "I'm fully aware that I fell off the freeway. I'm also aware that I hit a green car that was being driven by a blonde woman in her 30's who wasn't speeding or anything- she was just unlucky. I also know that I'm in a concussion in a hospital and that my little brother is probably worrying himself ill."

"Oh." Orlando didn't know it was possible for someone to be so precise about their death. All the angels he'd ever spoken to had been really hazy on the details. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but you sort of… died."

"…died?" Well, wasn't this turning out to be a fun little concussion?

"But don't worry! Your little brother is going to be totally safe," Orlando assured him. "We're going to get him a watch angel to make sure he's ok."

"I don't need someone looking after my brother, thank you," Brice said coldly. "I've been doing that myself for quite a while. Look, I'm sorry, but this was a mistake. I'm not supposed to die- I'm supposed to be on earth with Dom making sure my mother doesn't get to him. I can't do that if I'm up here, so just send me back down that tunnel thing that I came up through and we can be done with it."

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that," Orlando said sadly. It was always hard for the young ones to accept that they couldn't go home. Sometimes, especially those who'd been responsible for their siblings or friends, it took an angel weeks to get over their deaths. "You're safe here, and Dom is safe on earth. We're going to make sure that nothing happens to him."

"Hey…" Brice frowned a little and eyed the angel up and down. "I know you! You're the boy from the freeway!" His eyes widened in shock as he clenched his fists. "Did you push me?! You jerk!"

"I didn't push you!" Orlando denied quickly, raising his hands in surrender. "Michael told me that it was your time. No-one is allowed to die alone so he asked me to go with you to the freeway. Michael is—"

"The archangel of humanity, defender of the people and slayer of the red dragon," Brice interrupted. "Yes, I know. What's he got to do with it?"

"Oh, he's the head teacher at the school; he's a real nice guy." Orlando pointed to a set of pearl white gates that, until now, Brice was sure hadn't been there before. Attached to the wall was a gold sign reading "The Angel Academy".

"I die and I have to go to school?"

Orlando laughed, glad Brice wasn't trying to hit him anymore. "You'd be surprised how many trainees say that."

"Trainees?"

"Oh, yeah. We think that the word 'Angel' sounds too holier than thou and all that," Orlando explained. "So we call them celestial agents. Those who are still in school- that's you guys- are the trainees."

"Are you friends with Luci and Rufio?" The 'trainee' asked.

"Ah… about that… well, Michael will tell you all that soon enough," Orlando had ceased making eye contact with Brice now and seemed really eager to change the topic. "You'll love school, it's nothing like it is on earth. I have to go to class now, I'm helping organise some new trainees, but if you walk through those gates you'll find someone who'll take you where you need to be."

"Wait! Don't leave me on my--" too late, Orlando had disappeared. "--own."

Brice looked nervously around him and almost had kittens when he suddenly saw a bunch of kids his own age walking on the other side of the gate. He slowly pushed them open and started to walk along beside them, pushing his hands into his pockets and staring determinedly at the floor. It was just like being back home, all these kids were in big groups chatting happily about nonsense and he was out on his own.

He would probably have walked all the way to the entrance hall on his own if it hadn't been for a girl in combats and a rainbow coloured scarf bouncing into him from the side.

"Whoa! Watch it, sweetheart!" He yelped, tumbling to the floor along side her.

"Oh, gosh! I'm so sorry!" She laughed, helping him to his feet and brushing herself off. "Didn't see you there, babe."

"Yeah… me neither."

"Jools! What did we tell you?" A boy's voice laughed, coming up behind them both and clapping the girl, apparently called Jools, on the shoulder. He turned to Brice and grinned. "Sorry, mate. Jools doesn't know how to slow down."

Brice blinked a few times, staring at the brunette boy wearing a Bret Michael's style bandana.

"Do I know you?" He asked, certain he'd seen this kid before.

The boy had a similar look of confusion on his face. "I don't know… I think I know you… not sure where from though."

"Omigosh!" Jools shrieked, jumping up and down and clapping childishly. "Hendrix found his SM!"

"His what?" Brice asked, fairly certain that SM meant something _pretty _different on earth.

"Soul mate!" Jools grinned, hugging both of the boys like Christmas had come early. "Hendrix has been waiting for his for ages! It's a your souls spiritual partner who you've know for centuries and have this totally luminous connection with."

"And Jools has been reading the angel handbook too much," Hendrix grinned.

Brice laughed with him, having no clue what an angel handbook was. "I'm Brice," He introduced.

"I'm Hendrix," The hippy angel smiled, shaking hands with the newbie.

"Like the guitar player?" Brice asked curiously.

"Exactly like the guitar player," Hendrix laughed. "My parents were major hippies. My mother even gave birth to me at Woodstock- she said she was going to name me after whoever was playing when I was born."

"Cool. I'm named after my great uncle," Brice supplied. "He… was a general before war was outlawed."

"I think I win in the name game then!"

"Totally!" Brice agreed, enjoying how comfortable it felt to be laughing with Hendrix and Jools.

"You're new then?" Jools asked eventually as they walked along with the other students.

"Yeah."

"How did you die?"

"I… fell of a freeway."

"On purpose?" Jools looked shocked.

"God, no! I was sitting on a barrier and a car hit it," Brice explained, realising now how daft his death sounded. "What about you? If it's ok to ask."

"Don't worry, death is less of a taboo issue in heaven," Jools assured him. "My dad kicked me down the stairs when I was 16. He'd been drinking."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"No sweat," the girl shrugged. "He was hung for it. I died in 1888," she supplied, noticing the confused look on Brice's face.

"My death's totally boring," Hendrix sighed. "I was helping load a stage up for my mate's gig and I put my hand on a naked wire and electrocuted myself. I'm the reason why people aren't allowed to operate lighting in professional theatre anymore."

"Congratulations?" Brice laughed.

"I certainly think so."

They eventually arrived at the entrance hall where a jovial man called Mr. Allbright split all the new trainees into classes. Jools and Hendrix gave him a high five each when he was put into their class and he felt an embarrassing rush of affection for both of them. How sad was that? He ordered himself not to act so lame and joined them both at their side of the hall, chatting along with them about various school things.

It seemed Angel school was a lot like human school- you still had homework and assignments. But it seemed the lessons were completely different.

"You so have to join the earth angels with us!" Jools said excitedly. "Or the history club, that's so cool."

"Earth angels?"

"They're like agents who stay on earth and hang with humans in deprived areas- pumping vibes and stuff to keep their spirits up. Me and Hendrix do it as often as we can."

"Cool," Truth be told, Brice thought that sounded a little dull. What was the point of being an angel if you couldn't help everyone? Why limit yourself to just one place when you had the power to go anywhere you were needed. Of course, he wasn't going to tell his new friends that he didn't really agree with their job prospects. "What's this history club?"

"Basically you go to different time periods and help out. Kinda like EA work, but you're not seen by the human's unless it's a really important mission."

Now that sounded like Brice's sort of deal.

"And you go to any period of history?"

"Pretty much."

"Interesting." So he could go back to Dom and help him? Maybe this angel thing wasn't such a bad deal after all.

****************

Brice soon worked out that angels were very strange people. Some of them, anyway. There were some, like Hendrix and Jools, which were pretty laid back and cool. Then, there were others who were completely loopy- usually the girls. He'd seen loads of angel girls, pretty cute ones in fact, spend most of their time shopping and speaking in really high pitched, giddy voices. He'd also learnt what a 'pure angel' was. Pure angels had been born in heaven, and had never seen earth apart from going on missions- that in itself was weird in Brice's opinion. He had a suspicion that the boy Orlando who'd met him when he first arrived was a pure angel. He looked too perfect to be human.

"Your hair is so cool, you know," Hendrix commented one Wednesday as they sat on the beach watching the waves. "Like Sid Vicious."

"Thanks. My mum blew a nerve when I showed her."

"I'll bet she did," Jools giggled, toying with her braids. "I remember once I cut my hair really short to blend in with the boys and my dad nearly killed me."

Just then, Hendrix's watch beeped. He looked down at it and sighed. "Private study time."

"Every Wednesday afternoon you have private study," Jools explained. "I work down at the hospital helping agents who get injured on earth."

"And I practise guitar or work in the Angel Watch centre. Or, you know, do both at the same time," Hendrix added. "God… I sound so shallow compared to Jools' and her angel saving time!"

"Angels can get hurt? Aren't we immortal?" Brice asked. Angels are already dead, right?

"The powers of darkness can do some majorly bad mojo on us if they get close enough," Jools said darkly. "I've seen some horrible stuff happen to agents who have a run in with demons."

"Powers of darkness? Demons?"

"Basically, a human has a soul, and that soul makes them who they are," Jools told him. "It's like their essence. They live from it and need it to exist. The Egyptians were like the first to work this out and did all these rituals to protect it when you died- I guess they were the first humans to realise about the powers of darkness."

Brice started to feel uncomfortably cold. Where had he heard this conversation before?

"The powers of darkness try and trick humans into selling their souls to them. They offer them power, or wealth, or protection. But really, all they want is to take away the human's souls and turn them into depressive slaves to hell for the rest of their lives. You don't die when the powers of darkness take your soul, you just loose all conscience and hope and don't even care about whatever it was the demons promised you- that's when they really have you."

"So… your soul _is _precious?" Brice asked slowly.

"Of course, dummy!" Hendrix said, giving his soul mate a playful punch on the shoulder. "You wouldn't be here if you didn't have it. Anyway, we'll give you angel lessons later, dude. Guitar practise awaits."

"Can I come?" Brice asked. He didn't want to be on his own right now, and would really appreciate keeping Hendrix or Jools with him.

"Sorry, but private study is, well, private, you know?" Jools told him. "Don't worry- you'll find your own thing soon."

Brice didn't find his own thing soon. For the next month he spent Wednesday afternoon laying on his bed in his and Hendrix's room, staring at the ceiling and playing music by a band called "Astral Garbage" that Hendrix had introduced him to a week ago to try and block out the humming top music in his head and thoughts of Dom on earth.

He'd been in Heaven for a month. How long was that in earth time? A day? A year? A decade? Did Dom even remember him? Leaning over, he turned the radio off halfway through the song 'Kiss my angel' and lay in silence staring at the ceiling. It wasn't that heaven was a bad place… he just didn't want to be there. Jools and Hendrix had noticed this and had gone out of their way to try and make him feel at home. Jools had taken him shopping, but he hadn't really been interested, and Hendrix had taken him to see loads of angel bands or to bars in the Ambrosia district. He'd enjoyed it, and thought the food was amazing up here, but still… it wasn't the same not having Dom sat next to him asking him question or begging him to come play with him.

And what was his family doing to him? Maybe Dom was a teenager now and was innocently becoming a genius ready to be exploited for his mother's gain? There was no way that would have happened if Brice had been there to protect him. But, no, he had to go and fall off a freeway.

Private study? What a load of nonsense. More like Private depression. Brice rolled onto his side and wrapped his arm around his pillow and buried his face in the plush material.

"I'm going to come get you, Dom," He vowed.


	4. Hanging out in Jack's town

**AN Yeah, Jools is sort of like a premonition of Mel ^^ But, sorry to break it to ya… Brice aint gonna start fancying her XD That honour is reserved for Leela and Maia.**

* * *

"Hey, it's the history club interviews today," Jools commented, pointing to the flyer pinned up on the school notice board.

"Yeah," Brice wasn't really paying attention. He was more preoccupied trying to work out how he could get back to his century for a few hours to look after Dom. There had to be a way he could do it. Jools wanted him to be an EA with her, and take the exam for that, but he knew there was no guarantee he'd be put anywhere near his century. There were no problems there, earth angels weren't really a requirement. He needed something where he could choose where he wanted to go.

"It's really cool, apparently," Hendrix pressed. One of the down sides of soul mates was if yours was depressed, the vibes passed onto you and made you feel down as well. So far Hendrix had spent 6 weeks in a complete mind funk thanks to Brice's wandering sulk. "Time travel and stuff. You'd really dig it- maybe you can swing by Woodstock and check out my mum for me?"

"Wait... you choose where you go?" Brice asked, perking up suddenly and sending happy vibes shooting through Hendrix.

"Sure. For some of the modules you do a study of an era- you choose the time and place and they give you a human," Hendrix explained- enjoying this role as teacher that he had whenever Brice was confused. "Hey, speaking of which, have you found a private study yet?"

"No… Not really," Brice shrugged, taking a drink out of the smoothie he'd been given at Mo's. The man had told him he needed perking up, and said that his strawberry cheesecake smoothies were just the thing. Brice didn't really believe this, but it tasted nice anyway.

"Try going to the beach," Jools suggested. "That's how I found my place at the hospital. I just lay on my back and listened to the waves and this voice inside of my told me I should go down to the hospital. Turned out they'd been waiting for me. It's such a cool experience."

"That voice gets you out of a load of sticky situations, dude," Hendrix nodded, looking suddenly wise despite his grunge metal outfit. "It's like an inner angel that's totally qualified."

"Plus they give great fashion tips!" Jools giggled. "Mine always helps me decide a totally chic outfit on a morning."

"Jools! That's not what your inner angel is for!" Hendrix playfully cuffed his friend around the head and laughed at her apparent shallowness. "But, seriously, Brice. You'll get it eventually. You just need to… ya know, open up a bit. Try going to the beach. Jools is right. Or try this history club deal, you might find what you're looking for there?"

Brice attempted to muster some form of enthusiasm for his friends' sake and nodded. "Yeah, I'll check it out," he assured them. He took Jools' wrist and turned it to look at her watch. "Hm, they're starting about now. Guess I'll see you around?"

**

* * *

**

**Angel HQ**

When Brice arrived at HQ he was suddenly very aware of just how many trainees there were in heaven. No way was he going to be selected out of all these angels! Some of them were visibly glowing and discussing really deep topics about time and space which Brice didn't even know existed. They were so going to get chosen straight away. Slouching into the nearest corner he jammed his hands into his jean's pockets and started determinedly at the floor. This had been a mistake, if he waited long enough he could have an opportunity to sneak out.

"Brice De Winter!"

Ok, maybe he couldn't slink out and hide.

Very aware that everyone was staring at him, he slouched forward where Michael was waiting for him.

"Come with me, Brice." The arch angel smiled warmly and put his arm around the boy's shoulder, sending tiny little volts of purity all down Brice's left side. "We're just going to have a short interview and then we'll decide if you're fit. Ok?"

"Ok," Brice mumbled, following his head teacher into his office. He sat down on a stuffed chair in front of the desk and nervously looked around the room. It was just like a normal head teacher's office, in all honesty. There were a few certificates for something called an "Advanced Halo" award and photos of old students hanging lovingly placed frames. Michael was sat down behind the desk emitting comforting vibes to the whole room which only served to make Brice more nervous.

"Now, just close your eyes for a few seconds, please," he said calmly. Brice complied and suddenly felt a huge whoosh in his chest.

"_Brice! Brice! Do the dinosaur thing!" Dom jumped up and down and clapped his hands excitedly as Brice lifted him up and spun him around, making the appropriate 'dinosaur' noises and flying Dom around the garden._

"_Watch out for Pterodactyls!" Brice warned, swooping Dom up in the air and snarling enthusiastically. Dom giggled happily, believing determinedly in the game that his brother was inventing. "And dive bomb back down to earth!" Brice let Dom land back down on the grass before grabbing the big cardboard box from the table and sitting it on the floor._

"_Ok, now brave explorer Dominic De Winter needs to get back in his time machine and travel somewhere new!" He narrated, helping his brother into the box and spinning it round as fast as possible to simulate time travel. "Where are we now, Dom?" _

"_World War Two!" Dom exclaimed excitedly._

"_Alright, now… duck down to the floor!" Brice ordered, dropping to the ground and demonstrating, taking a stick to use as a make-shift rifle. "Hold your gun close, soldier! We're approaching enemy lines!"_

"You can open your eyes now."

Brice blinked in uncertainty and touched his head. "Did you…Was that it?"

"Yes," Michael smiled. "You miss your brother, don't you?"

"More than anything," Brice admitted.

"Are you happy here, Brice?" Michael asked seriously. "You're making friends?"

"I have Hendrix and Jools," the boy shrugged, not wanting to commit to having friends. He was planning on leaving soon, no point in creating emotional complications for himself. "I hang with them."

"And are you happy?" Michael pressed.

"No." There was no hesitation in Brice's voice as he answered. "I want to go home."

"To look after Dom?"

"Yes. I'm the only one he has to look out for him. With me gone he has nobody!"

"But you understand that you can't go back?" Michael's calmness was starting to really get on Brice's nerves now. How could the man be so cool and collected about such a thing?! Didn't he understand how dangerous it was leaving Dom by himself?

"Of course I can! We're angels! I read it in that handbook you gave me- angels can intervene with humans in an emergency- this is an emergency! My brother could be in serious danger when he grows up and starts messing with things. Do you know what my mother would do if Dom stumbled on something she could use? She'd suck him dry, Michael! She couldn't get near him when I was there, but now I'm gone!"

He dropped his head into his hands and swore softly under his breath. "But I went and died."

"It's not your fault Brice, it was-"

"-my time," Brice completed. "Yeah, yeah. We all have a time to go and no-one is ever alone in the big happy universe where angels make everything pretty and safe! But what if it wasn't my time, hm? What if I wasn't supposed to die when I was just 16 years old? Didn't anybody take into account what I wanted to do with my life? Did anyone _ask_ if I wanted to loose my life and my family so I could become some… some… _some halo shagging angel?!"_

His voice had risen to a shriek now, and he knew that people outside could probably hear him swearing at their beloved headmaster. But right now? He didn't really care what people could hear.

Michael still remained infuriatingly calm, making little steeples with his fingers and resting his elbows on his desk as he serenely waited for the young angel to finish.

"What are the powers of darkness?" Brice asked finally.

"I think you know."

"No. I only know what it says in the handbook and what people have told me. I want to know the truth."

"Very well." Michael slowly rose from behind his desk and selected a book from the vast shelves behind him. He opened it at a select page and settled it down on the desk in front of Brice. On the page was an angelic figure with a flaming sword, powerfully exerting his power upon a shrivelled black figure howling on the ground. "Which is the demon?" the man asked.

"That one," Brice said, pointing to the dying figure. Michael gave a single nod and turned the page.

"Which one is the demon?"

This time the page showed two humans standing side by side on a street corner. Both were smoking and clearly had weapons hanging from their belts. They both looked cold and frightened.

"I… neither," Brice answered eventually.

"Look closer. Look at their eyes." Brice frowned, but none the less did as he was told. He studied the faces of both the children before drawing back and pointing to the one standing on the left.

"Why?"

"His… eyes. They're empty. They look like…"

"…like Rufio and Luci?" Michael supplied.

"Yeah. But… these are little kids! That one only looks about 10!" Brice gasped.

"The powers of darkness, or PODs as you will no doubt hear your classmates call them, feed on the misery and unhappiness inside a person's soul. They can possess a human and make them think terrible things about themselves until they're so desperate they'll turn to anyone to feel a bit of warmth. They can pretend to be a human and befriend some one in need, only to drag them down so deep into self despair that they can't come out again. They can even influence humans by just standing next to them. Make them do things they'd never dream of doing."

"Like… selling their soul?" Brice asked quietly.

"Exactly. The PODs get their life force from humans and their souls. The frightening thing is, they can seem so nice and well meaning at the time. Sound familiar?"

Brice didn't reply, he just nodded his head and motioned for Michael to continue.

"The powers of darkness convince people to exchange their souls in return for favours. Happiness, protection, familiarity, anything that a lonely human might want and would be willing to give anything for."

"That's what Jools and Hendrix told me," Brice agreed. "They didn't say they were so… nice, though."

"Evil always looks nice," Michael said sadly. "Trainees rarely see it, however. They like to imagine that the 'bad guys' are the ugly, horned demons they read about in fairytales, but the reality is far more terrible. Brice, I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

"If you ever meet Luci or Rufio again, and I'm sure you will, I want you to do what's right."

"You mean… ignore them?"

"You'll know when the time comes." Michael stared at him with his soul scanning eyes before steadily sitting back against his chair. "Well, I think our little interview is over."

"It is?" Brice was shocked. "I thought you'd ask me stuff about the club?"

"I saw all I needed to," Michael smiled, gently reaching over and tapping Brice's forehead. "You have a beautiful little brother, Brice. He'll be safe. The angel watch centre never sleeps."

* * *

**Trainee dormitories. **

"Brice! Come on, they're putting the names up for the history club!" Brice was practically dragged out of his bed the next morning by an overly eager Hendrix, and was soon hit in the face by a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with an order to get dressed quickly. Brice, who was still half asleep- despite the theory that angels didn't need sleep- mumbled some sort of affirmative and shuffled, bleary eyed towards the mirror to fix his hair.

"No time for that!" Hendrix insisted, pulling the shirt over Brice's head. He would have probably started putting his boxers on for him too if Brice hadn't have roughly slapped his hand away. Hendrix couldn't help it, he was trying to encourage some enthusiasm in his soul mate and was determined to be peppy until Brice picked up on it. He'd even beamed vibes to him in his sleep to try and get him to cheer up a little.

Once Brice finally got all his clothes on he was once again grabbed by the over-excited angel. Hendrix pulled him out of the dorm and down the corridors towards the entrance where Jools was waiting. When they arrived at the notice board Jools triumphantly pointed out Brice's name at the top of the list.

"See! I knew you'd find your thing!" She chirped, clapping him on the back. "It says your first meeting is today. You're gonna love it."

"Time travel is the best," Hendrix agreed. "The travelling is a bit weird at first though. So remember to breathe steadily."

Hendrix and Jools chatted all the way to their first lesson about the joys of travelling through time, and Brice lapped it all up in a way that could be perceived as enthusiasm, but was in fact devilish interest that he was planning to use to his own advantage. Apparently all you needed to do was get a technician to type in the date you needed and voila. Off shooting through the threads of time and back home where you needed to be. It all sounded so simple he was amazed trainees hadn't done it before.

One thing Brice could appreciate in the lessons was that they seemed to come very naturally to him. The teacher once told him he was a natural for angel work and it had sent him off blushing for the rest of the lesson. Hendrix found it a little harder. Jools said it was because he was from an era with lax morals and it had worn off on him, she thought that hippies sounded like very dodgy people and wasn't convinced that they were as good as Hendrix said they were. Hendrix just said it was because he wasn't a good student. He was more interested in playing his guitar on the beach or working in the watch centre than he was studying the various levels of hell and whether or not it was morally viable for a child to steal bread to save a starving family.

After the lesson Brice was called over by Orlando to go up to HQ for a meeting about the history club. Brice couldn't get over the fact that this boy had a small following of fangirls (and a few fanboys) but was so shy around people. The Latino led him over to HQ and pointed him in the direction he was needed. Michael was standing with a small group of students and beckoned Brice over when he turned up.

"I've sent a message out to Jools and Hendrix to come and join you," He said jovially. "They'll be good company for you when you go out on your mission."

"You're giving us missions straight away?" Brice asked. This was certainly… fast. He'd read in the handbook that qualified agents got to go on missions- it didn't mention anything about them throwing the trainees in at the deep end!

"Strictly speaking it's just an observation mission," Michael assured him. "You go to a problem area in a large group and you beam some vibes to raise the light levels."

"That's it?" Brice was fairly sceptical to say the least. What was the point in bothering with small solutions like that? They were angels! Michael probably had enough power in his right foot to solve war and poverty in the world, what in the world was he doing sitting around up here?

"It doesn't seem like much, but we like to take the long term approach," he was told. "Angels can't just dive in and solve everything at once. You need to give it time, and soon enough humanity will pull through. Given the right amount of nurturing even trees can turn into diamonds, Brice."

* * *

**London, 1889**

"Well this was a complete bust up," Leela sighed, kicking a pile of broken bottles. The skidded down the gritted pavement and shattered over the gutter, just waiting for an unfortunate bare-foot child to stand it. "We get all dressed up and he isn't even here." She tugged at the tight corset she was wearing and struggled to breathe properly. Not that she really needed to- being dead had its advantages. Unlike angels, who dressed as neat and proper humans when they came to earth, the opposition was far more open to dressing as members of the gritty underworld. Leela, for example, was clearly dressed as a lady of the night. Rufio, looking very suave in his lace collar- like Brad Pitt in that vampire movie- was her pimp.

Angels would dress as barmaids or labours to try and win the hearts of the people- the sort of person someone is likely to open up to. Likewise, in their mission to crush souls, the powers of darkness picked the perfect guises to bring despair to those around them. After all, studies show that 1 in 10 working class women fell to prostitution in Victorian London- so what better people to suck hope out of innocent people than the very person who was causing that despair? Rufio loved his job.

"He'll be coming, don't panic," Rufio assured her, putting his arm loosely round her shoulders and glancing down the street. "Where's Maia?"

"She went to beam some vibes around that work house down the street," Leela shrugged, following her boyfriend's gaze. Luci hadn't come with them for this one, their boss had decided he'd become too passionate after their last mission and had banned him from coming along on any soul retrieval missions for a long time. This had pissed the boy off more than anything as he was now stuck in the watch centre surveying humans in desolate areas. It had been him, in fact, that had directed Rufio, Leela and Maia to where Brice and the new trainees would be.

"Well, link her up and get her to come back down here. I need us to all be together when Brice shows up," Rufio ordered.

"Oh, it's going to be so totally luminous!" Leela laughed, mimicking the sort of talk she'd heard young angels using. She straightened out her bodice and expertly linked up with Maia. They might hate angels, but there was no denying that they had good methods- The Link was one of them.

_You coming, babe? _Leela asked. _Rufio says that the angels will be here soon._

_Gotcha, _Maia replied and, sure enough, a few seconds later she'd beamed herself up next to her two partners. She wrapped her arms around herself shivered. "Phew, it's freezing down here! How do these humans put up with it?"

"Did you get any work done down at the workhouse?" Leela asked curiously.

"A bit. There were a few children there who'd just lost their parents, so I did a little work keeping them nice and low for the night," Maia grinned, relaying her accomplishments as if they were the best thing ever. "Plus there was an old woman convinced she was about to die and go to hell, so I confirmed that a little for her. It's strange, none of the angels were there like they usually are when someone's about to kick the bucket."

"Well, I guess goodness can't be everywhere."

* * *

"I used to live down there!" Jools said excitedly when they all touched down on earth. She pointed down a dingy looking street at a row of crumbling houses. "Just round the corner by the post office."

"Maybe we'll see your grave?" Brice suggest grimly. The one thing that creeped him out about going back to his old time period one day was the feeling that he might see his grave one day. For some reason he didn't really want to know what his mother had put on it.

"Oh, I've seen it," Jools said airily. "Here lies Julia Rochchild, 1872 – 1888."

"That's it?"

"Tombstones cost a lot more in my day," Jools said sheepishly. "And my father wasn't big on sentimental stuff."

"I've not seen mine yet," Hendrix sighed, looking pretty bummed about it. "I don't know what my mum decided to write on it… hopefully it's something about my stunning good looks and winning personality."

"In your dreams!" Jools laughed.

"So… are we supposed to just look around?" Brice asked, looking over at the group of trainees that were along on the group trip with them.

"I think we'll get split into groups or something and beam vibes to a certain area," Jools guessed. "That's what we do as EAs."

"Alright, gang!" Mr Allbright stood at the front of the group and clapped his hands for attention. "I need you to split off into groups of four and report to me for a street to beam vibes on. Remember, none of you are here to intervene and if you see any problems contact me on the link and stay put until I get there. You're here to beam vibes and observe only!"

"Groups of four?" Hendrix commented. "Looks like we need another guy. Hm, I know… OY! Orlando- come join our group!"

"Hendrix!" Jools blushed, thumping him on the arm.

"What? Maybe now you can get to know him. He _is_ in our class, you know. Not that he's all that good, I might add."

"He's just shy!" Jools insisted calmly, though she turned a funny shade of pink when Orlando walked up to their group. He smiled at her and suggested they all go to Mr. Allbright for their assignment.

"Ok, if you guys can take Buck's row down in Whitechapel?" He asked, reading off a list and jotting their names down.

"Isn't that Jack the Ripper territory?" Hendrix asked worriedly, definitely not wanting to go to a murder zone.

"Don't worry, honey, that was last year," Jools comforted him. "Saucy Jackie was 1888. We shouldn't have any trouble down there."

* * *

"So which one died here?" Leela asked, looking around all the corners in Buck's row.

"Mary Ann, I think," Rufio said, after a moments thought. "The first one."

Maia shivered apprehensively and grinned. "The vibes are so strong… she must have been petrified."

"Understandable really. You'd be pretty nervous if a guy was ripping your throat out," Leela commented dryly.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Rufio sighed. "I loved old Jackie… such a pity he stopped at five. I'm sure the big guys could have made him do even more."

Once all the hell hounds started tailing Jack people had begun to get pretty suspicious. He'd been arrested twice, but released after a little bit of hellish influence over the police officers. Then, of course, the angels had come in and given the oppositions favourite serial killer a conscience.

"Ssh, I can here something," Maia interrupted, raising her hand for silence. "Look! Angels!"


	5. Falling

**A/N: Yeah, cliff hanger at the end of the last chapter…. It's good to be king. **

"Look! Angels!"

"What? Where?" Leela spun around to look in the direction Rufio was pointing at, and grinned maliciously when her eyes landed on the sight in front of her. Not one trainee angel, but four of them. Completely unattended.

"Isn't one of them Brice?" Maia asked, squinting slightly through the early evening fog. "It sure looks like him." Of course, they all knew that Brice was going to be in this time zone around this time- they had access to all the information on field missions that the angels went on- but they hadn't expected to find their catch so soon.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Rufio grinned, slipping his arm around Leela's waist. "Come on, babe. Show time…"

Leela smiled and nodded, but a split second after her expression turned to that of fear as Rufio threw her to the ground. She screamed and covered her face with her arms, grinning secretly behind them as she felt the trainee angels perk up and pay attention.

"Don't you ever do that again, you worthless bitch!" Rufio yelled, bringing the cane he was holding down hard against her back. Well, it_ looked_ hard to anyone watching from a distance.

"I won't, I promise, sir, I won't!" Leela sobbed, adopting a thick cockney accent typical of a girl of her status. Maia stood behind Rufio, gripping his free arm and trying uselessly to pull him off her friend.

"Oh my God!" Hendrix gasped, seeing the commotion first and pointing worriedly. The others felt the horrible vibes coming off the pimp and looked at each other in concern.

"We can't just leave her, can we?" Jools asked. "It wouldn't be right…"

"It's not like we can materialise and stop them, though," Brice countered, looking equally as sickened as Leela, if not worse. He was sure he recognised the pimp from somewhere.

"Something feels wrong…" Orlando seemed the only member of the group who didn't look worried. On the contrary, he looked slightly suspicious.

"Of course it's wrong! Some loser is beating the crap out of some poor girl!" Brice snapped at him. "Can you not see that?"

"Can't you feel the vibes?"

"Of course we can, Orlando," Hendrix said in exasperation. "They're coming off that man like smoke from a chimney. That girl is petrified, and so is her friend! Come on, we have to get beaming vibes to them."

Back over at the 'scene' Maia was snatching glances over at the angels to see what was taking them so long. They appeared to be arguing about something.

"Rufio- it's not working!" She hissed.

"They'll come soon, don't worry," He assured her, halting their little play for a few seconds before getting right back into it by yelling yet more coarse insults at Leela on the floor. He loved this part of the job, acting was so much fun! It was nothing like the thrill of doing this sort of thing with a real human, though…. Then you didn't have to fake it. Rufio could sometimes practically get drunk off the vibes coming from a scared whore when he did this role-play for real.

His little fantasy was cut off, however, by the sudden feeling of angelic vibes coming towards him. He blanched as they touched his skin and threatened to pierce his aura with their golden tendrils.

"Ok, now for part two," Rufio whispered, taking Leela and Maia by the arms and dragging them both further into the square. "We need somewhere cut off." The two girls nodded in agreement and stumbled after Rufio, the vibes affecting them as much as him. They weren't especially strong, nothing like a fully trained angel would be able to pack, but it was still pretty uncomfortable, like the feeling you get when you spill candle wax on your finger and it starts to harden- but about 10 times worse, and all over your body. He heard one of the male angels order the others to run after them and he grinned viciously, the plan was working so well it was almost too easy. The angels would follow them into the back alley and then they'd be hopelessly cut off. In a crisis a lot of trainees forgot they could dematerialise and escape- they always acted so noble and stayed to fight. Members of the opposition were taught straight away that bailing was the best option if you think you're going to loose a fight- no point getting pummelled by an angel now, is there?

Once at the cul-de-sac of the alley, the three POD agents turned to smile at the angels who'd followed them like lambs to the slaughter.

"Nice of you to join us," Rufio said easily, putting his arm delicately around Leela's shoulders. Leela, all credit to her, was staying in character perfectly, sending pleading looks up at Rufio as if she was wondering who he was talking to.

"Leave her alone," Hendrix said sternly. Orlando was looking around the alley with the same suspicious look on his face, eyeing the pimp and the two girls up and down critically. There was a split second where Maia accidently made eye contact with him. That was enough for Orlando to work out that they'd just been lead into a very bad situation.

"Guys, they're all the opposition!" He yelled, turning to run back out of the alley and lead them with him, only to find that Rufio, Leela and Maia were now standing in front of them, blocking the way out.

"Well done," Rufio congratulated sarcastically, clapping his hands slowly. "Took you long enough… Isn't my little darling such a good actress?" He gave Leela a quick kiss on the cheek before returning his attention to Orlando's team. "But hold on, we're not here to do the big bad; we just want to talk to you."

"You're very handsome," Maia commented absently to Orlando, stepping away from Rufio and looking at the young Latino angel. "We sure don't have nice boys like you back at school."

Orlando ignored the question and looked steadily at Rufio. He

He certainly didn't seem shy and uncomfortable now, quite the opposite in fact.

Hendrix, on the other hand, wasn't one for ending fights with staring matches. "What do you mean?" he asked Rufio.

"Ok, maybe I wasn't specific enough," Rufio admitted, twirling his cane casually between his fingers. That took practise, by the way; He'd broken several windows in his dormitory before he'd perfected this casually cool move. "We really want to talk to Brice. We couldn't give much of a damn what you other three angels are doing here- though your chick is very cute. You used to live on… Hanbury Street, didn't you?"

"That's none of your business," Jools replied. "What do you want with Brice?"

"We just wanted to ask if his brother was feeling better," Maia answered, toying with her shawl and plaiting a few of the loose strands that hung from the old material.

"What?" Brice blinked a few times in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, Michael didn't tell you?" Leela gasped, feigning concern and resting her hand atop Rufio's. "Ohh, that's awful, isn't it babe?"

"Terrible," Rufio agreed, nodding sadly.

"Tell me what you're talking about!" Brice frightened even himself with how threatening that last line sounded. Once again, only Orlando was the one not sharing in the collective emotion.

"Brice… don't listen," He said slowly, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder to hold him back. "The opposition says what you want to hear."

"He's right you know," Rufio commented cheerfully. "We're notorious for it."

"Despicable," Leela nodded.

"Evil," Maia agreed.

"But we're not lying this time." Rufio's gaze locked with Brice, and for a few seconds the angel was certain he saw a flicker in the demon's dead orbs. Was he…telling the truth?

"Why wouldn't Michael want me to know there was something wrong with Dom?" He demanded, holding Rufio's stare and faltering slightly when the demon laughed, deep down in his throat.

"Because then you wouldn't be concentrating on your work, would you?" Rufio chuckled. "Michael can't have all his mindless little halo-wearers panicking about their family back on earth, can he? Bad for morale. The slavers back in the 1800's followed the same sort of principal I believe… and they do in it prisons and workhouses in any century you care to go to. Mourning is bad for business, and as far as Michael's concerned, all you angels are just disposable resources that he can tweak and polish in school before sending them out to do his dirty work."

"Brice, don't listen to him!" Hendrix begged, joining Orlando beside the trainee and taking his arm. "Heaven's not like that and you know it!"

"Shut up!" Brice snapped. "What's wrong with Dom?"

"He's sick."

"That's impossible, Dom doesn't get sick." In all the 3 years Brice had managed to spend with his little brother, the boy had never once even had a snuffy nose. No-one really got sick in his century. When a baby was born they were given their standard health jab and for some reason that prevented all the minor aliments making them sick as they went through life. It was rare to hear of someone getting ill, and as if someone was it usually meant they had one of the fossil diseases- a term coined by scientists to mean any virus's from after the 20th century that they thought had died out. But even then they could find a cure within a week. It was only things like falling off a freeway that they couldn't cure.

"Polio," Rufio said bluntly. "Bulbar."

"They have a booster for polio…" Brice narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but inwardly he was still worried. He mentally recalled everything he'd learnt about pre-medical revolution diseases. Polio was bad if children got it, that's why humanity was so relieved when it was eradicated in the early 20th century.

"So? They have a booster for tetanus and people still got that."

There had only been 5 recorded cases of polio in Brice's lifetime, and all 5 patients had recovered. Why should Dom be any different? He was strong, wasn't he?

"Your mother won't take him to the hospital," Leela said softly, almost as if she could read Brice's mind. "Something about not wanting the media finding out she had a polio case in her house."

If Brice didn't believe the three demons before, he certainly did now. He could easily picture his mother telling Dom to stay in his room and not allowing any doctors through the door unless she'd vetted them out first. In fact, she wouldn't even have to get outsiders involved… her cousin down in Chicago was a doctor, all she had to do was phone her up and they could keep it inside the family without anyone having to know her son had a fossil disease.

"People die from bulbar polio," Rufio prompted, breaking Brice out of his thoughts about his mother and family. "The angels clearly aren't helping."

"Brice, Michael wouldn't do that! Listen to us! If Dominic was in danger Michael would tell you!" Jools pleaded.

"Leave him alone to think, hippy," Leela snarled, glaring at the ex-Victorian. "He doesn't need a girl like you interfering."

"You starting, girl?" Jools challenged.

"Ladies…" Rufio said calmingly, holding Leela back. "Settle down and let's discuss this like grown ups."

"We're leaving. Now," Orlando decided, taking charge and pulling his angel tags out of his pocket. He nodded for the others to follow suit, and they all did. With the exception of Brice, who looked like he was about to be sick.

"Go on, try it…" Rufio grinned, watching as Orlando uselessly tried to activate his tags. "Isn't it funny, girls, how the angels put so much scope in those tags, and then as soon as you get a high powers of darkness influence nearby, they immediately stop working."

"Yes, sometimes it's like they _want _to trap their agents in a dangerous area," Leela agreed, smirking at Jools who was currently trying to prize her angel tags open to see what the problem was.

"So, as we were saying before we were so rudely interrupted by your little girlfriend." Rufio cracked his knuckles and looked over at a bench perched by the wall. "You know, we've been standing and chatting for far too long. Let's just sit down and be civilised."

The four angels raised their eyebrows in puzzlement as the demon calmly walked over to the bench and inspected it.

"It should fit 4 of us," he called to the collection of bemused angels and cocky hell girls. "Brice, would you come help me lift it?"

"It's a trap!" Hendrix said automatically.

"Yes, I'm going to drag you down to hell with a wooden bench," Rufio said sarcastically. "Very evil."

Brice wordlessly went over to Rufio and picked up the other end of the bench that the demon was holding. He had to admit this was a very surreal experience and in all honestly he wasn't really sure what was happening. All he could think about now was that there was a strong possibility that Dom was very sick and needed help.

"Nice to see that angels aren't so high and mighty these days," Rufio grinned, placing the bench in the desired place and sitting down on it. He patted the wood and indicated for Brice to join him.

"It's a-" Hendrix started

"Will you please be quiet?" Rufio asked, sounding oddly polite. "All audience members must please save their questions until the end of the show? Thank you." He brought his attention back to Brice and clasped his hands in front of him.

"Now, we're gonna have to be quick about this, because sooner or later the agency will work out that your tags are being interfered with- oh don't look so shocked, angel butt, we're evil!- so I'll just come out right and say we have a proposition for you."

"A proposition?"

"Yes."

"Like?"

"Like, we're going to help you find a way to save Dom," Rufio pointed out, though he figured that Brice had already caught on to that part.

"Same deal as last time?"

"Same deal as last time," Rufio agreed. "Though, slightly less sneaky. Luci was being all big and macho about it all, but I much prefer to nicely explain it all to a person before hand. I apologise for sounding very rude last time we met and trying to trick you- it was very underhand of me."

"Geez… is the gracious pimp thing an act or are you just challenged?" Brice asked, smirking almost as wide as Leela.

"Yeah, ok...." Rufio shrugged. "We could do it this way, or we could pin you to the floor and rip your soul out through your arse with a pair of rusty forceps."

"…can you do that?"

"One way to find out." Brice actually found himself laughing at Rufio's weird sense of humour, and was concerned that this thought still didn't stop him laughing along with the dreadlocked demon.

"Pleasantries aside, we don't actually want your soul," Rufio admitted.

"He's lying! He's lying!" Hendrix insisted. He probably would have stepped forward to pummel Rufio if it hadn't been for the strange mystic barrier that seemed to be preventing him from getting close to Brice. He couldn't see it, but it was like walking into a glass wall whenever he took a step forward- Jools and Orlando were having the same problem.

"It's some sort of… force field," Jools said lamely, prodding it with one finger and looking at Orlando for some sort of help.

"Maybe we could burn through it?"

"Like with fire?" Hendrix asked dubiously.

"With _vibes_" Orlando corrected, forming a sphere of light in his palm and holding it against the barrier.

"Watch this," Rufio whispered to Brice. "It's going to be very funny."

Now, the rumours about angels being able to fly are a complete myth. Unless they're an arch angel, and that's only when they're on duty fighting some sort of mystic battle against the cosmic forces of evil. However, regardless of this small fact of nature, Orlando had a pretty near on experience of flying when he tried to push the light sphere through the opposition's barrier. A sudden kickback shot forth from the transparent force field, sending Orlando up into the air before he crashed painfully back down to earth a few yards away.

"Orlando!" Jools yelled worried, charging down the alley to see if their companion was ok. Hendrix shot a worried look back at Brice, determining that he wasn't going to do anything stupid, before he followed Jools to check on Orlando.

"Great! Now we're alone we can talk properly," Rufio said happily, patting the bench for Maia and Leela to join them.

"What do you mean when you said you didn't actually want my soul?"

"It's just a figure of speech, really. It just means we want you to work for us," Maia explained. "It isn't like we take your soul out of your body and put it in a jar!"

"Though Maia totally used to think that's what they did," Leela whispered, having sat herself next to Brice so he could rub his shoulder as they all spoke. "She's such an airhead."

"So… I don't loose anything then?" Brice asked. Michael had made out that it was some terrible act… but if nothing actually left you, then what was the problem?

"Nope. You see, there are two kinds of POD agent- those that are born in Hell, and those that go to Hell when they die. Those that go to Hell when they die are 'owned' by our head teacher, he's such a sweetie, and he's called-"

"Lucifer?" Brice guessed.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Lucky guess."

"Anyway, Lucifer basically owns their soul. But that doesn't mean much, all it means is that they're not allowed to leave Hell unless he gives them permission. Which is basically like what they do in Heaven, right? The angels can't just amble on down to earth whenever they want to," Rufio continued. "Those that are born there have the same sort of deal, but they're owned from birth rather than forcing it upon themselves. I was born there, but Maia and Leela used to be human."

"How did you-" Brice started to ask.

"Ssh! It's a great story, we'll tell later," Leela assured him. She was still rubbing his shoulders.

"Sometimes we encourage human's to 'sell their soul' to us in order to get protection. That means they have to be a hell agent when they die," Maia took over the story now, speaking as a preschool teacher would to a new child. "That's what Luci and Rufio were trying to do when they first met you."

"Where is Luci?"

"Desk job. He failed," Rufio said shortly. "That's the only rule we have- don't fail."

"And don't wear dark soled shoes in the gym," Maia added.

"But… I don't think I want to be a hell agent, like you guys," Brice admitted. He didn't like heaven, and he wanted to go back to Dom and look after him, but at the same time he didn't want to loose his humanity to Hell.

"Now that's the beauty of it," Rufio smiled. "You don't sign up for missions until you're ready. Besides… all you need is some help looking after Dom? We don't need to force you to do anything else."

"No, of course not," Leela agreed.

"That'd just be mean," Maia nodded. "We're not as bad as people say we are."

Brice could clearly see all three of them childishly had their fingers crossed behind their backs.

Dom was sick. Dying. He didn't know if that was true- he had no proof but these three agents' words- but if it was true, then it was also true that Michael hadn't told him about it. All Michael had done was say angels would take care of anything that went wrong. Well… what if Brice didn't want some emotionless arch angel going near his little brother? They knew nothing about him! They didn't know how to do all the things to make him laugh, and all the things he liked to play, or have for snacks. They couldn't understand how to make him happy. He needed Brice for that.

He probably couldn't work out why Brice wasn't there to look after him… he was probably lying in his bed, scared about what was happening to him. Well, Brice doubted Dom would be scared, more than likely he'd be reading medical websites to find out exactly what was happening to him. But… still! He couldn't be enjoying being cooped up on his own without anyone to play with and make him feel better.

"-so in reality, the Greeks destroyed Alexandria by themselves," Maia was saying when Brice finally started listening to them again.

"What?" Brice hadn't really been paying much attention to Maia's little 'The opposition is good' speech, and quite frankly he didn't care. He didn't care what these people were doing to humanity. As long as he had Dom, the entire human race from Cavemen to the end of time could go to Hell for all he cared.

"Ok, I'll come."

"Really?!" The three agents' eyes lit up in excitement at Brice's answer. They'd expected at least another half an hour of explaining before he accepted the offer.

"Sure, when do we leave?" He asked, standing up from the bench and folding his arms. "Do we get an in-flight movie?"

"Hey, your angel friends are coming back," Leela pointed out, nodding in the direction of the three rapidly approaching angels.

"Dang," Brice said dryly, stepping away from the group and walking over to the angels. He stepped through the barrier without any interference.

"Listen, guys… I'm not coming back," He shrugged, sticking his thumbs into his belt loops and smirking boredly. "So… can you, like, put my name on the homework and say I did it?"

He could hear the PODs laughing behind him, and his smirk widened.

"You… you can't be serious," Jools stammered.

"You can't!" Hendrix pressed, holding out his hands for Brice to take. "I know you're upset, but it'll work out. Michael will make it better."

"Now, you see, I don't really think he will," Brice replied, looking entirely bored with the situation now.

"It's POD vibes making you feel like this," Jools insisted. "It's not you thinking these things- you know deep down they're not true."

"So what?" Brice shrugged. "I don't care if it's real or not. I don't care if these guys are lunatic, necrophiliac, baby eating psychos or whatever!"

"Which we're totally not!" Rufio called.

"Whatever. They can be anything they want to be," Brice continued. "But they're going to help me look after Dom. They could be lying about him being sick, and now I'm starting to change my mind and think they probably are… Dom never gets sick… but who knows? One day he might actually get sick, or be in trouble and the angels won't do anything about it. They'll just sit there talking about diamonds and trees and all that shit. Which, by the way? Is a stupid metaphor. But, whatever, they won't do squat to help my brother. Heck, where were they when I needed them as a human, huh? I don't ever remember a nice friendly angel helping me when I was sitting on my own at school with no-one to talk to. I don't remember any angels stopping me falling off that freeway, do you? Hm, let's ask Orlando- I seem to remember you were sat right next to me when I fell!"

"I couldn't interfere with it!" Orlando said defensively.

"Exactly! Angels don't do anything when they need to. You just sit there beaming vibes to people when you know full well it isn't doing anything. This era is full of angels, and are these people's lives getting any better? I don't think so. Jools knows that more than anyone. And it doesn't get much better than this later on, does it, Hendrix? Were there any angels there to stop you taking hold of that wire? Did you get any divine intervention telling you not to touch it?"

"Well…. No, but…." Hendrix stammered, not really sure what to say to Brice now he was in this kind of mood. He'd not seen the boy like this before- usually he was creepily calm and didn't talk much, but now he was completely different!

"Exactly. They let you die. At 16! Did they care that you might have a life ahead of you?" Brice demanded. "No! They just needed a couple more students, so bumped off the nearest they could find."

"Brice! It's not like that!" Jools gasped.

"It is. Did we get asked if we wanted to go to the academy? Nope! Well, so what? I'm dropping out."

And, with that said, Brice ripped the angel tags off of his belt and threw them down onto the floor in front of Hendrix.

"See you around, _soul mate_."

**AN: aaaaaaand we have evil Brice ^^**

**Yeah… he went a little bit nasty at the end with Hendrix. Let me explain so you don't think it's weird- You know the theory that you're horrible to your friends when you have to leave them because it makes it easier to leave if you hate them? Well, that could be what Brice is doing.**

**That… or he's genuinely an arse. It's your call.**


	6. New kid in school

**A/N In regards to how long this fic is going to be… well, I don't really know! I write these chapters in my free periods at college- which seems to be when I get my best writing vibes, maybe we have a few earth angels?- so really it all depends on how much work I have to how long I'm going to make this. But, maybe it will be done by Christmas? Either way, I already have a sequel planned for when Brice goes back to heaven. Enjoy!**

Travelling down to Hell was a lot different to travelling up to Heaven. When you're returning back up it's a fairly smooth journey with very little interruptions. When you're on your way down… well… it's a very different matter indeed. That's not to say it isn't fun though.

Time Tunnels are quite literally a bunch of tunnels that connect to every period of time imaginable, and a couple more unimaginable ones too. They also have drop off points at several intervals as a way of getting back down to Hell. So, even though they're a lot easier and quicker than portals for getting to different time zones, Angels are banned from them for the simple reason that ducking into a hell dimension is something neither party wants them to do. However, the danger of a time tunnel is that they are unbelievably unstable- so a lot of the opposition didn't like using them, and simply used the old fashioned angel trick of beaming themselves back down. Trainees, however, adored breaking the rules once in a while and popping into the time tunnels for a good old bit of illegal fun.

Rufio had used some sort of strange little shadow to cut open a slit in midair that lead into the time tunnels. Sometimes they opened randomly, but it was actually quite simple to open one yourself when you knew how. "Just hold my arm and you'll be cool," Rufio assured Brice, materialising what looked like a badly crafted surfboard from inside the tunnel and standing on it. Brice noted that Maia and Leela were doing the same thing.

"Remember, don't let go," Rufio reminded him, pulling Brice onto the board and throwing them both into the tunnel. As soon as they were in, Brice could see why Rufio had elected to have something to stand on. The strength of the time strands in the tunnels was so strong they were like waves in the sea. Rufio had clearly done this a million times before, and his moves on the board were so natural they seemed almost effortless.

"This is called flying," Rufio called back to Brice over the noise of the tunnels- which was almost deafening- as he ground the board down over a strong time wave. "It's the next best thing to having angel wings!" he added, laughing at the expression on Brice's face. A lot of newbies threw up on their first time in the tunnels, and it seemed Brice was probably going to be one of them.

The waves suddenly calmed as Rufio detoured them both down a new tunnel. "Renaissance era," Rufio explained, his voice the normal volume now. "It's always makes the waves calm. The revolution eras are the best- you can do flips on those ones."

"I think I'll stick to portals thanks," Brice mumbled, looking very green.

"Nah, you'll get used to it after practise…. Oh, watch out, French revolution comin' up!"

"I thought you said tunnels were faster?" Brice asked when they finally stopped at a large grey platform, secreted at the base of one of the tunnels.

"They are if you do it the boring way," Maia agreed, climbing off her board and pushing it back into the tunnel where it quickly vanished. "You just jump in and visualise where you want to do. But, if you surf it… it's way more fun!"

"Unless you fall off. Then you have to start again," Leela added.

"Where are we?" Brice asked, stepping onto the metal platform and looking around. He'd expected Hell to be more… hellish. This just looked like a train station, a very untidy one at that.

"This is a landing site," Rufio explained, taking a key card from his pocket and swiping it down a keypad on the wall that Brice was certain hadn't been there before. "Sort of like our version of the pearly gates. Only less pearly."

"I voted for pink," Maia piped up. "But all the boring people who wanted gray won."

"So Hell is through there?" Brice asked a little nervously.

"One of the dimensions, yeah," Leela nodded, swiping her own card through the door too. "This one we're at is the school section where we all live and stuff. There are others where the agents live, one where all the soulless go, and one where loads of icky demons live…. There are loads of them actually! Our headmaster has a dimension all to himself."

"None of them have simple names though," Maia commented. "So we just name them after who lives there- it makes it easier."

"You only need to worry about the other dimensions if you get sent there, though," Rufio assured him. "Most of us only ever go in the school one. We've seen Lucifer's a couple of times when it's been a big school event or whatever."

"He has his own sushi bar!" Maia said enthusiastically.

"Speaking of which, you so need to see the Ichor district!" Leela exclaimed. "It's the best place in Hell to get great food. They have the Babylon Club, Jo's café, it's just wonderful. Plus, they have the best night clubs ever."

"Hey, before he can do that he needs to be enrolled," Rufio reminded the two girls. "Lucifer should be at school now, so we'll take you to his office to get you signed up."

"Signed up?"

"You know, cos' you're an…" Rufio gestured up and down Brice with his hand. "…angel. It could cause problems."

After Maia had swiped her card through as well, Rufio pushed the door open on the platform and ushered Brice through. The sight before him was almost breathtaking. He'd expected fire and brimstone, with burning towers of sulphur and coal, but the entire thing was almost an exact mirror of Heaven. The only difference here was it looked a lot more inner city than valley chic. The buildings were twisted black and grey, and anti-angel graffiti littered the walls. But, apart from the colour scheme and the weird vibes, the entire place looked pretty normal. Almost like earth.

"Human's give us such a bad rep in novels," Rufio sighed, apparently guessing what Brice was thinking. "They think we're all uncivilised and messy. Come on, let's take you to HQ."

As with before, Brice was creeped out by how much the opposition HQ looked like its angel counterpart. Rufio lead Brice to the doors, but stopped once they arrived.

"We have lessons now, but if you go in and ask for Lucifer the woman on the desk will tell you where to go. See you around!"

Brice was about to ask why Rufio couldn't skip and come with him, but the boy had already disappeared with Leela and Maia before he'd had much of a chance to protest.

He looked up at the building in front of him, and sternly told himself that he was doing this for Dom- if his brother really was sick, then it was up to him to do what ever it took to help him get better. Pushing open the grand doors, he stepped inside and walked down through the vast reception to what he hoped was a visitors desk.

"Er… I'm new," He said to the woman there. "I'm looking for… Lucifer?" It felt strange saying that. Almost comic in a way.

"You're Brice, right?" The woman asked kindly. "He's expecting you; if you go up the steps here and go to the second door. Just knock and go in."

"Ok, thank you." Ok, she'd been a very friendly and helpful hell demon. Was that normal?

Brice followed the directions he'd been given and stopped outside a door with 'Lucifer- Head Master' written on in italic red writing. The angel knocked confidently on the door and waited for the order to come in.

As he walked in, another boy was just leaving. He had deep brown eyes and beautiful coffee coloured skin.

"Remember, Rolando, make sure the boy joins the gang as soon as his mother leaves," the man behind the desk called after him. The boy nodded and smiled rather scathingly at Brice on the way past, indicating that he should go in.

The man behind the desk looked to be in his late thirties; he had shaggy brown hair and looked like he'd forgotten to shave for the past two days. His suit was a beautiful tailored Armani design, but looked like it had been dragged through a hedge backwards and been rejected by the dry cleaners. Never the less, he was smiling and looked like a typical high school head master- hardly what you'd expect the devil to look like.

"Oh, I assure you I'm a lot more threatening than I look," the man said pleasantly, pointing to the seat in front of his desk and nodding for Brice to sit down. "Would you like a peppermint?"

"Erm, no thank you," Brice replied, sitting down in the seat and looking curiously around the room. As with Michael's there were a lot of books lining the walls, only some of these looked a little bit more dark than the arch angel's type of reading material. One of them even looked like it was bound in some sort of scaly, green skin. The walls were covered in framed photos of various people standing with the man he saw in front of him. Several of them looked quite famous.

"You met Girls Aloud?" Brice asked curiously, looking at one of the photos near the door.

"How do you think they won their recording deal?" Lucifer's smile looked rather terrifying then, and Brice remembered what the man had just said about being more threatening than he looked. The boy laughed nervously and took one of the peppermints he'd been offered as a way to distract himself.

"So, I'm sure you know by know who I am?" Lucifer asked cheerfully, leaning back in his chair and holding his fingers in steeples.

"Yes."

"You worried?"

"… Not as much as I think I should be," Brice replied honestly. He was still trying to puzzle out why the devil looked like a worn out business man. "Besides, you know why I'm here, so there's no reason for either of us to be worried by each other."

"Yes, of course. You want to join our school, correct?" Lucifer asked, opening one of the drawers in his desk to locate a few forms. "I must say, it's been a while since we had someone one of your… special circumstances."

"I believe you were the first and last angel to fall, weren't you, sir?" Brice asked carefully. He'd done some reading when he'd arrived in Heaven, wanting to see if all the myths were true, and had been very interested in the story of Lucifer and the fall.

"Correct. We've had a few angels in the past attempt it, but that was back when we still had white robes and no dry cleaners. Since then we haven't had a student change schools. Some have threatened to, but dear Michael changed their minds."

"I'm not interested in your little turf war," Brice interrupted. "All I want is for my brother to have someone to look after him. The angels won't let me go to earth when I want to, so I want to know if you guys will. If not I'm going."

"You do realise it's not quite as simple as that?" The devil asked, pushing the forms he'd taken from the drawer towards Brice and pointing to certain parts of it as he spoke. "Being dead does offer certain complications. You technically don't exist on earth."

"But you guys can blend in with humans," Brice pressed. "I read it in a book at the library back in Heaven. Most people can't even tell the difference between a dark agent and a bad human. Same with angels- they mix with humans all the time and no-one notices."

"Yes, but you do have to realise that is done under very controlled circumstances. Michael and I have to be very open with each other about how many agents we have in a given place," Lucifer explained. "We don't just throw our students up where we feel like it, and nor do the angels."

"I said I don't care about your cosmic battle," Brice said calmly, pushing the forms back towards Lucifer. "I just want to be left alone. I don't care if you win in the end, or if Michael and his halo babies win. You can wipe each other out for all I care. I just want to be with Dom."

Lucifer smiled wickedly. He knew Brice had a pure soul, but he hadn't bargained on him being as beautifully strong willed as this. Being near his vibes was almost like taking ecstasy. One of the biggest problems the PODs had was their peace treaty with the angels. Lucifer hadn't been lying when he said he couldn't send students up where he wanted. Every time he put students up on earth he was obliged to tell Michael, and vice versa- Michael told him whenever he was sending down angels. They promised not to actively get in each others way and start fights, but were free to try and influence humans from a distance. Of course, a lot of the younger agents didn't abide by this rule, and on many occasions Lucifer had to have long boring meetings with his and Michael's staff to discuss ground rules. For years now he'd wanted to find a loop hole that meant he could get rid of angels who got too close, and when he'd discovered Brice… well, it was all just too perfect.

"I understand what you mean," He said softly, taking the forms back and tucking them into his desk. He certainly wouldn't need those now. "And we have a proposition for you." The devil held up his hand when Brice looked as if he was going to interrupt. "No, nothing like Rufio was talking about. Rufio thinks we just want you as an agent, but I know that you're worth so much more than all that."

"I'm listening."

"Excellent. You see, angels and the opposition are governed by certain laws that were put in place when I first came down here. They're such a fiddle to deal with, but I knew one day I'd find a loop hole."

"I'm a loop hole?" Brice asked suspiciously. "How?"

"Well, you say you have no interest in being an agent?" Lucifer asked.

"None at all," the angel said honestly. "But I don't want to be an angel either."

"Exactly. So, how do you feel about freelance work?"

"Freelance?"

"You do some work for us, and we let you go up and see Dominic for as long as you wish," Lucifer presented, knowing full well Brice would accept in the end, but still be very sceptical. The boy's emotions were so clear right now that Lucifer hardly had to even concentrate to read his thoughts as they whizzed through his head in confusion.

"You mean I could go whenever I wanted?" Brice asked curiously. That was certainly more than Michael had ever offered him.

"Within reason, yes. All I ask is that you participate in our classes down here and go on a few 'special' missions for us." Lucifer didn't even bother to try and hide the fact that this was all very illegal. He sensed that Brice didn't really care either way- he just wanted Dom. This worked out very nicely for Lucifer. If Brice was planning to turn his back on the deal once he'd made sure Dom was ok, Lucifer now had a very nice little emotional opening to exploit at will.

"Can I go now?" Brice asked eagerly. Now Lucifer had said he was allowed to go he didn't want to waste any time sticking around in Hell when he could be making sure Dom was kept safely away from his mother's influence.

"Not right away, let's get you settled first," Lucifer decided, wiping the eager smile off of the boy's face. "We'll put you in Mr. Alslight's class with Rufio and his friends, seen as you know them already it will be easier for you to fit in. But first, we have a few things we need to do."

"What like? I'm not a real student so I don't have to do all your admin stuff. You told me so."

"No, I mean that you're still an angel," Lucifer pointed out. He hadn't minded the angelic vibes seeping off of Brice. He was strong enough to resist them, but he knew that students would sense it on Brice straight away- and he couldn't deal with a mass fallout between students over an angel being in their dimension. "But don't worry. We can change that easily. If you'd stand up, please?"

Brice complied and stood up in front of Lucifer's desk, walking round to the back of it when Lucifer beckoned him towards him.

"You hear a voice, in your head, correct?" The man asked.

"You mean right now?"

"Possibly. But I just mean generally."

"Erm… sometimes," Brice shrugged. "The book said it was my… inner angel?" It sounded so lame saying it out loud that Brice almost blushed. "Hendrix told me everyone has one."

"Yes. All angels, anyway," Lucifer commented. "We don't have that here, we feel it just gets in the way of things. A young boy like you should be making his own decisions, not listening to silly little voices in your head."

"I guess so," Brice shrugged. Personally he'd always found Dave- that's what he called him- quite useful. He kept him company- at least in his head- when he was bored during private study. On the other hand, Dave had told him to listen to Michael when the man had told him that all the angels would take care of Dom. He was also the one that had been telling him to ignore Rufio when they'd been down in 1889. "Yeah… I shouldn't have to listen to it," he added, sounding more resolved than he had previously.

"I can get rid of it for you," Lucifer offered. Not that Brice had a choice in the matter, he was planning to silence Brice's inner angel whether the boy wanted him to or not. But he still found it polite to at least ask first.

"Will it hurt?" Brice asked reluctantly.

"Not at all," Lucifer replied. "Though it may make you feel a little light headed for a while. And everything will seem a little strange in your head, but I promise it's nothing to worry about. You'll get used to not having a voice telling you things."

"Is it like my conscience?" Brice asked curiously. He'd never been entirely certain what Dave was actually there for. He'd heard things in his head when he was a human, telling him what to do, but he'd just accepted that as being his conscience- everyone had that. Once he'd arrived in heaven he'd noticed that Dave's voice was the same as his supposed conscience on earth, only this time he could have conversations with it instead.

"You know, I suppose it is," Lucifer said thoughtfully. "To be an affective agent I feel that you need to be separated from that silly duel thought concept. Trusting your own instincts is much safer and quicker- no internal arguments to waste your time."

Make no mistake about it; Brice had picked up on Lucifer's use of the word 'agent'. He still didn't want to get involved in this age old debate about good and evil, and no amount of quiet persuasion was going to solve that.

"Ok then, take it away," the soon-to-be-ex angel said decisively. He knew he was giving up a lot here, and that he was probably not going to be the same after this. But anything was worth it to keep Dom safe.

"Certainly."

Lucifer could hear Brice's train of thought. That he was only doing this because of his little brother. How noble. Foolish, but noble. Lucifer knew that he'd need to spend a while allowing Brice to go and see Dom, to let him play with him or whatever. But he also knew that soon enough, Brice would have spent enough time down in the Hell dimensions to understand that he actually enjoyed being an agent- even though he denied it steadily now. Lucifer understood that with a little bit of careful planning, that Brice would be the best dark agent he'd ever seen. When cooking live frogs, you don't just throw them straight into hot water; you heat them up gently so they don't know what's happening. Then, before they know it, they're nice and cooked and ready to be displayed as a delicacy.

The devil stood up from behind his desk and placed both his hands on the sides of Brice's head. After ordering him to close his eyes, he stealthily started to probe into Brice's mind with the dark vibes oozing from his finger tips. He felt the boy flinch underneath him as the process started to take effect. So he'd lied a little about it hurting, but he was the devil! What do you expect? Although Lucifer couldn't see it, he knew that the vibes he was directing were smothering any angelic influence in the boy's body and crushing them into nothing. He imagined it was rather a painful experience, but all credit to Brice he wasn't letting it show on his face.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lucifer released his hold on Brice and stepped back.

"Feel any different?" He asked casually.

"Yeah…" Brice said slowly, wiping some sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"You may feel a little disorientated for a small while, but you'll get better." Brice was rubbing his eyes and blinking, trying to accustom himself to seeing things in the new way he was. He could see the dark vibes swirling around Lucifer better than he'd been able to before. Now he could pick out individual colours in the black smoke, and when he looked down at himself he saw that the same sort of thing was happening around himself. Flashes of gold darted through the rapidly blackening aura as the last of his angel attributes left him.

"I feel… different," Brice said eventually, looking at Lucifer though dark, soulless eyes. "More connected."

"Yes, you'll find that you're far more in tune with your fellow students here than you ever were in heaven," Lucifer smiled. "You'll see what I mean when you go to your class. Speaking of which, we'll take you down there now."

"What about my stuff?" Brice asked.

"Stuff?"

"Clothes and stuff. In Heaven."

"Oh… well, I'll be speaking to Michael later about all this, and we'll have to get it all sorted out then. But for now I'm sure Rufio's clothes will fit you, I believe you're the same size?"

"Yeah, but…" no offence to Rufio, but his dress sense was tragic. Fair enough, the pimp outfit hadn't been his idea, but those clothes he was wearing when he'd first met Brice? Cut offs and baggy t-shirts were so out it was hard to believe they'd ever been in.

"Or you could get Leela and Maia to take you shopping?" Lucifer held out an ID card, very similar to the one that Brice had been given when he'd entered Heaven. "We have the same concept as up there. Just flash the card at the till and it's all good. You'll get credits on it by doing missions."

"Cool." Brice took the card and pushed it into his pocket. He suddenly had a very apathetic feeling about himself that he'd never felt before. It was strange. Like he'd stopped caring about everything that was going on around him; Not Dom, though. He still wanted to see Dom more than anything.

"Now, come with me and we'll introduce you to the rest of your class." Lucifer opened the door to his office and ushered Brice out. "By the way… I think it would be best if you kept quiet about your… history."

"Why?"

"Some of the students may not be very accommodating about it."

That was an understatement.

When Brice entered the large classroom, closely followed by Lucifer, a strong hush fell over the students before a loud babble of whispers slowly rose up.

"This is Brice De Winter," Lucifer introduced, silencing the class with a single glance. "I'm sure you all recognise the surname, and know that he's going to fit in just perfect with you all."

Once Lucifer had left the room, the whispering started back up again. The teacher, Mr. Alslight, nodded at Brice and motioned for him to move to the front of the class.

"Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself, Brice?" He asked kindly. Like the receptionist at HQ, it struck Brice as odd that he seemed far too friendly and happy to be a demon.

"Er… sure. What do you want to know?" Brice shrugged, leaning against the blackboard and putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Well, maybe you could start with where you come from?"

"I'm from the 23rd century. England," Brice said shortly. "I lived with my mother, my uncle and my little brother- who is a genius. I went to a phoenix school and hated it. Then I died." He finished his very short story with a bored shrug. "And that's it."

"How'd you die?" Someone called out.

"Got hit by a car," Brice replied. Not wanting to reveal the whole of that story just yet.

"Why do you stink of angels?" Another piped up, expecting Brice to hotly deny it or blush. He did neither.

"Bad fabric conditioner?" He offered, gaining a laugh from a couple of the students in the class.

"I'm sure we don't need to badger Brice too much about that right now," Mr. Alslight interrupted, holding his hands up for quiet in the class. "I'm sure you'll all be able to talk about it at lunch break. Brice, if you'd like to take a seat in front of Rolando?"

Brice shrugged and went to sit down, noting that every single student in the class was staring at him. He took the seat Mr. Alslight had pointed to, and as soon as the teacher had turned to start writing something on the board, the Latino behind him jabbed him sharply in the back with his pen.

"Don't even think about trying to fit in, Angel scum," he hissed.

**A/N Aren't new schools super fun? Coming up next…. Brice's first mission. Then a time skip to when he's been PODing (hey, look, I invented a new word!) for a while.**


	7. Fitting in is hard work

**A/N This is the last chapter where Brice is a newbie… as you can see, he's having as much trouble fitting into Hell as he did in Heaven! Sorry for the delay in writing this, I had a sudden flood of essays recently. I'm back on track now though.**

"You know, I'm sure with a bit of concealer no-one will really notice," Leela said soothingly, touching the bruise under Brice's left eye with the tip of her finger. She hastily moved away when he flinched, however.

"Doesn't matter," He replied, pulling away and resting his back against the wall. "It'll fade. The other ones did."

In 4 weeks, Brice had been to the matron's office at the Hell dimensions school more than most students go in their entire academic career. Unlike on his earth, where bullying was practically non-existent, the Hell dimensions were not the kind of place you wanted to look vulnerable in. Rolando and his friends had been going out of their way over the past month to try and get Brice to run away back to Heaven, and so far it was failing. This hadn't put them off though; on the contrary, it had just made them more determined. Brice's problem was that as a De Winter, he wasn't the kind of person to take things laying down, and every time Rolando tried to provoke him it succeeded- meaning the De Winter boy often lost it and punched the boy. This often led to all of Rolando's friends pouncing on him at once in retaliation- hence, the black eye he had right now.

"Maybe you should just work it with?" Maia suggested. "It sort of makes you look dangerous."

"Or like you weren't looking where you were going and walked into a lamppost," Rufio countered, laying back on Brice's bed and punching him lightly on the shoulder. "Buck up, Rolando will get bored soon. He'll start doing missions again next week, so he'll not have time to bug you. Or just talk to Lucifer about it- he likes you, he'll tell Rolando to back off."

Far from being comforting to Brice, this just depressed him even more. He didn't _want_ Rolando to get told off. He wanted to solve it himself- Brice hated letting other people solve his problems for him, and running to Lucifer with his tail between his legs was exactly the sort of thing he didn't see himself doing any time soon. No… he wanted to really humiliated Rolando and get his revenge in the best sort of way possible.

He might hate everything his family had done over the course of history, but sometimes? It really helped being related to a family of crooks and blackmailers.

"Have you found anything to do on Wednesday afternoons yet?" Leela asked, sensing that Brice didn't really want to carry on talking about this. He never wanted to talk about the stuff that happened when they were at school. Sometimes she got the feeling that Brice didn't really fit in anywhere. He told them about how he hated Heaven, but didn't seem to really be trying to fit into Hell either. Secretly, Leela thought that Brice hadn't died at the right time. A person is supposed to have a sense of closure when they die. They miss their families, and their lives on earth, but a sense of calm and relief comes over them when they realise everything is going to be ok. Working on cosmic time, Brice had been dead for nearly 3 months now, and he still didn't seem to have accepted that being dead was permanent. Like private study, for example, Brice still hadn't picked something to go and do for those hours of free time on a Wednesday. Maia had offered to let him come and help out at the nursery with her where she worked every week, but he'd shook his head and said he didn't work well with little kids. He'd said the same about singing or martial arts when Leela and Rufio had offered to let him hang out with them when they did their 'thing'.

"Not really," Brice mumbled, not looking too interested in the idea. "I just hung out at the beach last week."

"Why do you go there?" Maia shivered. "The beach is creepy."

"I like it," Brice said absently, toying with a strand of his bleached hair. "The vibes are soothing." They drowned out the angel vibes that still clung to him, and the force of the waves shut out the suppressed voices in his head. He felt like he was loosing it when he was on his own in the quiet, since Lucifer had gotten rid of Dave he'd felt uncomfortable being alone. He needed the noise to fill the emptiness in his head.

"Well, I still think you should find something more productive to do," Maia said primly. "Sitting on your own on a dingy little beach can't be good for you. Go and talk to Lucifer, I'm sure he'll find you something fun you can do. Isn't he letting you go on missions yet?"

"No, he says he wants me to 'settle' first before he lets me go back to earth," Brice replied glumly. He wanted to go and see Dom; Lucifer had promised. When Brice had complained about this, saying that his little brother could be getting even sicker with this illness he had, Lucifer had just given him a lecture about cosmic time, and how Brice could wait years in Hell before going up to see Brice. All he'd need to do was jump into a time tunnel connected to the right date and year, and he could save Dom at any point in his life. Brice was a little put out that he hadn't been told this little piece of information in advance- he'd thought that Dom was in immediate danger with very little time left. He'd had no clue that Lucifer was just editing the truth in order to get him to accept the deal quicker. He should have guessed really… he _was _Satan after all.

In reality, getting a chance to see Dom was mind numbingly simple. Lucifer wanted him to make friends, once he'd made friends Lucifer would see that he'd settled. The devil knew that Brice was naturally anti-social, but wasn't at all happy with that. To be a good minion of the Hell dimensions you need to be able to get along with everybody- and so far, Brice hadn't been displaying that trait very well.

* * *

**The Beach, Hell Dimensions. **

Next Wednesday Brice once again found himself sitting bored as sin on the beach by himself. Maia had gone off to the nursery, Rufio to the gym, and Leela was singing in some sort of recital. Brice was counting waves.

He lay back on the cold sand and closed his eyes. The ocean connected to all of the other dimensions in Hell, so vibes from every possible Hellish place collected in the waves and were thrown into the sand every time the tide came in. All Brice had to do was lay down here and he could absorb them directly into his system. It was a strange feeling… angel vibes in Heaven had always made him feel perky and glowing, but the dark vibes in Hell had the same effect as sleeping on the cold side of a pillow: uncomfortable and clammy, but oh so calming at the same time.

Usually the only sounds on the beach were those of the waves crashing down on each other as they battled their way forward to disperse on the sand. Today, however, Brice was sure he could hear some kind of… whimpering. He frowned and sat up, opening his eyes so he could look out across the sand to see who it was. He didn't think anyone else came down to the beach on Wednesdays, and was rather interested in who it could be. Maybe there was another little misfit out there with nothing to do in private study?

"Who's there?" He called, standing up and walking in the direction of the sounds- which had dulled to a gentle whining now. "Hello?" He padded his way across the damp sand until he found himself at a pile of drift wood heaped up on the sand. The whining was coming from inside.

He might not be an angel anymore, but he still had a degree of compassion inside him that Lucifer couldn't smoother just yet. He still had that drive to help people. "I'm going to help you," he assured whoever it was under the wood, as he grabbed at the heaped up rubbish and tossed it aside. "You're going to be-- …. Ok…."

The boy had expected to find a student or something there. He hadn't expected to see… well… he wasn't entirely sure what it was. It sort of looked like a dog… but didn't at the same time. It was absolutely hideous- with strange green eyes and absolutely no fur whatsoever. All the same, though, he looked scared and cold, and Brice couldn't help but drop down onto his knees and pick up the… puppy? Somehow the word didn't seem to fit with the ugly creature.

"What are you doing here?" Brice asked, cautiously tickling the thing behind the ears. It made a strangled noise, like it was coughing, but it looked happy, so Brice guessed that was some sort of strange Hell puppy kind of purring. "Where's your mama?" The puppy seemed to understand what he was saying, and whined, gently nuzzling against Brice's chest and trying to burrow into his hoodie. "Aww… did you loose her?" the boy cooed, stroking the baby Hell hound again. It started to feel less strange touching him now, and the creature was starting to warm up a little. "I bet you're all alone now."

The orphaned animal wasn't exactly the kind of friend that Brice had expected to find, but it was still better than nothing. The puppy was a loner just like him, so maybe it would be good for both of them to sort of… look after each other?

"I'll call you…" Brice thought for a second. What do you call a Hell hound? Spike? Thunder? Killer? "…Bob." The puppy seemed pleased with this name and bounced happily in Brice's arms, bobbing up to lick him on the cheek. Hell hounds drool a lot more than your average doggie, so being licked by Bob was like getting a bucket of very slimy water thrown at your face. Brice didn't mind though- at least someone down here liked him without the headmaster telling them to.

* * *

"Oh, my God! You are not keeping that thing in our room!" Rufio declared upon seeing Bob for the first time.

"Why not?" Brice set Bob down on the floor, where the curious little pup instantly ran over to a pile of Rufio's clothes and eagerly started to snout around in them- getting Hell drool all over the tye-dye tops.

"Because it's not sanitary!" Rufio argued, using his foot to encourage Bob to get away from his clothes. "And, it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. You can't keep a Hell hound in our dormitory."

"What's a Hell hound?" Brice asked, picking Bob up from the floor and nuzzling him before sitting on the bed with him perched on his lap.

"That," Rufio said, pointing to Bob. "Hell hounds are dogs that follow guilty humans around. If they do something so bad that they can never forgive themselves, a Hell hound sniffs them out and follows them around."

"Don't they notice?"

"Nope. Only celestial beings can see them," Rufio explained, still looking very uncomfortable with the way Bob was eyeing his clothes still. "But they make humans feel bad… really bad." He grinned wickedly. "They basically do our jobs for us. If every human had a Hell hound following them, earth would be a much bleaker place."

"Hmm?" Brice still, after over a month, didn't care about this big good vs. evil battle that all the students were so obsessed with.

"So, let him go so he can grow up and depress a couple of humans," Rufio suggested.

"I can't. He won't survive- he doesn't have a mother. Do you, Bob?" As if on cue, Bob gave a small jerk of his head almost like a nod.

"Well… keep it away from my stuff," Rufio sighed. "And when it starts making little green messes all over the carpet, you can clean up."

"Don't be silly, I'm going to get him a litter tray," Brice decided.

"For a Hell hound?"

"Yeah, and a collar and leash too."

"You're so retarded," Rufio laughed. "No way is that little beast going to follow you on a leash."

* * *

Now, why the Hell dimensions had a pet store, Brice didn't know, but it certainly came in handy right now. The woman who worked in "The little pet shop of horrors" had given him a collar and leash that she said would hold a Hell hound easily, and recommended what sort of food he might like- seen as he wouldn't find much guilt to feed on in this dimension. She seemed to think that he must have come from one of the realms where sinners were punished; she explained that Hell hounds would wander around the torture chambers eating up the sinner's guilt and self loathing like it was kibble. But, she said that steak would work just as well.

"Yuck, what's that smell?" Brice tensed at the sound of Rolando's voice behind him, and clenched his fists at his side. If Dave were here, he'd be telling him to just carry on walking. But Dave wasn't here.

"Disgusting. It stinks of angel shit down here," one of his accomplices agreed.

"Maybe if you had a bath more often you'd stop smelling so foul?" Rolando suggested, earning a loud laugh from his friends.

"Maybe if you spent less time looking mirrors, you'd stop being such a retard?" Brice shot back, folding his arms across his chest and awaiting the next challenge.

"Big words, angel."

"Yeah… need any of them explaining to you?" There was a collective 'oooohhh' of shock following Brice's sarcastic jibe.

"You need to learn respect, halo boy…" Rolando threatened, clenching his fists like Brice and raising them. "You never learn."

"Bring it on," Brice challenged, dropping the back he was carrying so he could use both fists to fight.

"What's that?" Rolando asked, suddenly interested. He grabbed the bag from the floor before Brice had a chance to react and tipped out the contents, holding the leather leash and collar in his hand. "Kinky. Didn't think angels were into that sort of thing, freak. Then again, with the way you dress, we shouldn't really be surprised. Who's your mistress then? That Maia girl? She has a thing for angels you know… lucky for you, seen as she's the only girl who'd ever look at you."

"It aint for me," Brice snapped, snatching the items back from Rolando.

"You're the one in charge? That's hard to believe."

"I got a dog."

"…excuse me?" Rolando actually looked rather surprised.

"A dog. Got four legs, goes woof," Brice said, using his 'I'm talking to a four year old' voice.

"We don't have dogs in Hell," Rolando replied, sounding curious.

"Yes you do," Brice said. "Hell hounds."

"You have a _pet_ Hell hound?" One of the boys accompanying Rolando asked in surprise.

"Sure."

"And…you're going to put a leash on him?" Rolando asked. "Man… angels really are nuts!"

"I'm not an angel," Brice said flatly.

"Well you sure aint a demon, freak," Rolando smirked. "You don't belong anywhere. You're just a sad little loser who misses his little brother and cries about it every--"

Rolando didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, because Brice had just wrapped the spiked dog collar around his knuckles and used it to punch Rolando square in the jaw. The Latino screamed in shock and crumpled to the ground, clutching his bleeding jaw with his hands.

"Don't you EVER talk about my brother again!" Brice threatened, keeping his fists aloft in case Rolando tried to get back up again. Funny, though, it didn't look as if the Latino was going to be standing up anytime soon.

"What's going on here?" Brice didn't turn around at the sound of the deep, calm voice, but the fact that all the surrounding students scattered upon hearing it was enough to tell him that Lucifer had just turned up.

"Nothing, Headmaster," Brice said though gritted teeth, still glaring down at Rolando. "Right, mate?"

"Yeah… nothing," Rolando muttered, dragging himself up to his feet. He wasn't lying to protect Brice- not by a long shot- he was lying to save his own hide. Lucifer didn't like his students fighting; he wanted fraternity between his children.

"Rolando go to the hospital," Lucifer ordered bluntly, ignoring the lies issuing from his minions mouths. "Brice, come with me." He didn't turn to see if his commands were obeyed- he knew they would be- but distinctively heard Rolando hiss "You're gonna get it, angel bitch" at Brice's retreating back. He sensed the blonde was about to turn and hit the other again, and merely closed his eyes and sighed.

"Don't bother, Brice."

"…Sorry, sir," Brice muttered, lowering the fist that still had the collar wrapped around it back down to his side.

**

* * *

**

**Lucifer's office, Hell Dimensions. **

"Take a seat Brice," Lucifer offered. "And a peppermint, they're good for soothing tempers"

"I'm not in a temper," Brice replied, dipping his hand into the bowl anyway. He'd heard it was always wise to accept a treat when Satan offered it. He sat down in the leather chair he'd been seated in on his first day and folded his arms crossly. "I was just talking to Rolando."

"May I see your hand please?" Brice looked down and saw that he still had the spiked collar wrapped tightly around his knuckles. The metal spikes were coated in blood where they'd hit Rolando's jaw.

"I got a dog," Brice shrugged in reply to Lucifer's unasked question. "I needed a leash for it." He took the collar off of his hand and set it down on the desk for Lucifer to see.

"Ah, yes, you recently acquired a Hell hound puppy, did you not?" Lucifer asked with interest. "Usually they don't go near people, human or demon… so it's rather odd that he's so friendly around you. He is friendly, yes?"

"Yeah, he curls up on my bed and licks my face all the time."

"Interesting." It seemed Brice still had some of his angelic qualities, even after a month in Hell. "Tell me, Brice, have you had any trouble down here?"

"I'm a big boy, I can handle it," Brice shrugged, taking another peppermint and chewing on it.

"Rolando?"

"I told you, I can deal with him," The student pressed as he slouched back in the chair. "Can I go now?"

"No." Lucifer steepled his fingers and levelled his gaze with Brice's. "Have you found anything… strange about yourself since coming down here?"

"I can… hear what people are thinking… sometimes," Brice said awkwardly. "Students. Not teachers, though, and I can't hear yours."

"No, I expect not," Lucifer smiled. "That is to be expected. Many of our students who are destined to be agents have this power; it's what makes the job on earth much easier. You could do it as an angel too?"

"Yes, but only with humans. Down here I can do it with other students," Brice admitted.

"Of course, of course. But I do recommend you try and keep it in check when you're in class," Lucifer explained. "It's rather rude to delve into other people's minds without invitation. You'd expect other students to use the same restraint."

"Rolando doesn't," The boy muttered.

"Rolando will be dealt with," The headmaster's tone of voice indicated there was little room for argument. "How do you know he does it?"

"Because he… says things that I haven't ever said out loud," Brice said moodily. "He says things about Dom… When can I see him?"

"How about now?"

* * *

**2259, The De Winter mansion**

"Dominic!" Brice pulled away from Lucifer as soon as they landed in the bedroom, running towards his little brother who was laying asleep in the bed. He dashed over to his side and knelt down by the bed, trying to put his arms around him to hug him.

"You can't touch him," Lucifer explained, seating himself on the chair by Dom's desk. "You don't have a real form right now."

"Give me one, then!" Brice demanded, turning to glare at Lucifer, despite how dangerous that might sound. "You can do it, can't you? So what are you waiting for?"

"I'm afraid we can't let you have everything at once, Brice, my dear. You need to learn to accept these treats graciously," Lucifer said calmly. "For example, if you use that tone of voice with me again, you won't be seeing your brother for a very long time."

Brice bit his lip to stop himself from retaliating, and knelt back by the bed, stroking Dom's hair as best he could whilst trying to avoid his hand slipping through him. "He's so tiny…" He murmured. "I'd forgotten."

"He's also very sick."

Brice nodded, swallowing nervously. "Can you help him?"

"Hmm… Yes."

"…Will you help him?" Brice tried again.

"That depends."

"On?"

"On whether or not you decide to start embracing school life," Lucifer grinned. "Join some clubs; make some friends… do missions for me."

"You know I will," Brice reminded him, not taking his eyes off of his sleeping brother. "I told you I'd do what you wanted, for Dom's sake."

"Will you be willing to break cosmic laws?"

"Yes."

"Will you go into areas that are forbidden?"

"Yes."

"Will you destroy any angel that you meet?"

Brice narrowed his eyes and looked down at Dom, replying without any hesitation.

"Yes."

**A/N Le gasp, Brice is now officially badass.**

**Now, I'm half way through the next chapter, and just to warn you in advance, it will jump ahead about a year to when Brice is officially known as a cosmic outlaw and angelic drop out. **


	8. One year later

**Brice 8**

**A/N: So sorry for the 6 month delay. I thought I'd have this done by Christmas and then a load of work came up at college. Then, by the time I knew what was happening it was exam season! Luckily I finish my exams this week and then have nothing at all to do- so this story should get nice and finished. I hope my readers haven't lost interest and if you're one of the ones that haven't thank you so much for sticking with me!**

* * *

Loosing your conscience is surprisingly easy when you have the devil threatening to kill your little brother. Or is that a contradiction? Is it possible to still care about someone but have no conscience left? Brice wasn't sure. He knew that it worked for him, though. Humans were weak. Lucifer had shown him that. They just crawled around on their useless planet stabbing each other in the back.

And, whenever they stabbed, Brice got a tingly feeling.

He'd lost count of the amount of meetings Michael and Lucifer had been in about him. Michael claimed that Lucifer was breaking the law, and Lucifer claimed that he wasn't. Brice still didn't care about all that. The angels and demons could fight to the death and beyond for all he cared, as long as he was still able to look after Dom, he didn't give a monkeys who was in power. Consciences and control of the universe are some of the things that have a tendency to become so over rated.

"Dave! Dave! Come look at this!" Brice grinned at the sight of Dom, age 10, running towards him waving a sheet of paper. "Look! I passed my high school entrance exams, isn't that great?"

"Awesome," Brice agreed, taking the sheet off of his little brother and reading it. 100%, as usual. He'd been telling the kid for weeks in the run up to the exam that he had nothing to worry about, but typical Dom had been worrying about failing, even though they both knew that was impossible. "That's really cool. Going to stick it up on the fridge?"

"Don't be silly," Dom laughed. "I'm keeping it in my achievement folder."

"Of course." Brice loved how dorky his brother was. It was adorable.

"Lily passed too," Dom added shyly. "She got 95%"

"So you'll be in the same class? Brilliant."

"Yeah… Hey, can we go to the cinema?" Dom piped up, never able to think about school or girls for longer than necessary. He much preferred going out and having fun with his best friend, Dave- who was super cool.

"Ok, want to go watch some James Bond?" Brice offered. His brother had inherited his love of retro films, and seemed as obsessed with history as he had been when he was alive. It was rather touching in a way.

It was a bit of a kick in the teeth that Dom didn't remember though. Brice knew that if he was going to hang out with Dom he'd need to make it so the boy didn't recognise him. Besides, if he went into mourning for his brother it could completely ruin his chances of succeeding. Brice didn't want to be responsible for his brother becoming depressed and failing school. So, with a little help from old Lucifer, he'd removed himself completely from Dom's memory. His odious mother stopped talking about him after he died, and there had never been any pictures up on the walls anyway- so there was no risk of Dom bringing up the question.

The hardest part had been making sure Dom didn't find his grave. The De Winters had a huge crypt in the local cemetery, and Brice had gone to a lot of work to move his headstone from the front of the mausoleum to a more neglected patch around the back. Dom adored looking around cemeteries, so Brice knew there was every chance he'd see the name and realise he had a brother. Luckily, Brice was always with him when he went there, so he always managed to divert his attention away from the area where his headstone now sat over an empty grave. Not that there was much of his body left after the accident to keep in the crypt anyway.

"Come on, I'll pay for the popcorn," He added, taking some money out of his tracksuit bottoms and handing them to Dom. The only problem with this century was the clothing. At least when he was alive he could be as non-conforming as he liked, now he was dead he needed to blend in with the other scene kids. He still kept his hair the same, though. Just because he was dead didn't mean he was going to stop being a rebel. A cosmic outlaw… that's what Michael had called him once.

_Brice, we need you to come home._

Brice frowned as his headmaster's voice sounded in his head. He clenched his fists and ignored it. Lucifer was always calling him back at annoying moments. Sometimes Brice thought he did it on purpose.

"We'll miss the start if we don't hurry," He prompted, determinedly ignoring Lucifer.

_Brice! Come back._

_No, I'm busy. Give me another couple of hours _Brice huffily replied, putting his arm around Dom's shoulders as they walked down the street into town.

_No, you're not. You will come home NOW! _His cell phone began to ring in his pocket, Lucifer's way of giving Brice a distraction to leave with. The demon rolled his eyes and pretended to look at the caller ID.

"Ah, no… Dom, I gotta go," He lied.

"No! That's what you said last week!" Dom whined. "Why do you always have to go when we're having fun?"

"It's not my fault," Brice tried to explain. "You know what dad's are like. Mine always needs me."

"No I don't. I don't have a dad, remember?" Dom muttered.

"You're better off without one," Brice said firmly, placing his hands on Dom's shoulders. "They just get in the way. Look, I promise I'll be back soon. Here-" he took all the money had out of his pockets and handed it to Dom "-Take Lily to the cinema instead, ok?"

"Okkk," Dom said sulkily, taking the notes from Brice. "How long will you be gone this time?"

"I don't know, maybe a while," Brice admitted. He'd been bugging Lucifer a lot lately about being able to see Dom, and had been neglecting going out on missions.

"Well… see you soon, Dave."

"Stay out of trouble, k?" Brice ruffled Dom's hair playfully and gave him a gentle cuff on the shoulder.

"I'll try," Dom grinned.

* * *

"That was totally unfair!" Brice stormed, throwing his board down on the floor and stepping out of the time tunnels so he was stood on the platform. "Why do you have to pull me away whenever we're just getting into it?"

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder, my boy," Lucifer smiled, petting Brice on the head like a puppy. "Don't look so glum, you'll be back soon."

"What do you need me to do this time?" He asked boredly. Missions were always so easy these days. There seemed to have been a lull in cosmic activity lately, and all the trainees were feeling it.

"There's a school in the 21st century that's getting a little bit too perky," Lucifer explained. "A group of students, from Park Hall, are trying to put on a school play."

"You want me to wreak a kid's nativity show?" Brice asked sceptically.

"It's slightly more than that," Lucifer said patiently. "The boy playing the lead is having a bit of trouble at home, so are his brothers. They're nice and open for a little bit of your… special influence. There are a few girls as well, one of them is near breaking point, and so if you could… separate them, it would be very helpful for us."

"What's so special about them?" Brice asked.

"Nothing much, but they have a potential amongst them, and it's always nice to ruffle them a little. She can be a diversion for you."

Brice nodded. Potential was powers of darkness slang for a human who was about to become an angel. Who'd have thought there was one in a 21st century London comprehensive?

"When do you want me to leave?"

"Tomorrow should be ok; I'll have Rolando collect the files for you."

* * *

"21st century?" Maia asked, wrinkling her nose. "Eww… that century is nasty! …You're going to have so much fun!"

Rufio laughed gleefully. "So, the 21st century? Any idea what you'll be doing?"

"Lucifer just said that I needed to stop some teacher do a school show," Brice shrugged. "I don't get why it's such a big deal. School shows were always really lame in my era."

"Mine too," Maia agreed. "Just a load of try hards dancing around in the gymnasium in dumb costumes. What show are they doing?"

"Not sure. Lucifer said that Rolando will send round the info tonight."

"Yummy, make sure I'm here when he comes," Maia giggled. "Not that I don't love you or anything, boys!"

"It's just that Rolando is _dreamy_," Rufio sighed, pretending to swoon onto Brice's bed and wrapping his arms around the boy's shoulders. "We're _so_ unloved, Brice."

"What time did he say?" Leela prompted, secretly also rather interested, despite her boyfriend laying on the bed next to her. Rufio was currently hugging another boy though, so she was technically allowed to fantasise about other people. Besides, they weren't exclusive.

"Probably about nine," Brice decided, pushing Rufio off of his back and down onto the bed so he could sit up properly again. "I'm getting some files and stuff."

Come 9 o'clock, the four demons were eagerly awaiting Rolando's arrival. Well, two of them were, the other two- guess who- were feeling pretty neutral about it. Maia practically flew off of the bed when Rolando knocked and opened the door beaming.

"Come in!" She ushered perkily, taking Rolando by the arm and leading him in. "Brice is there."

"Clever observation," Brice commented dryly, holding his hand out for the file Rolando was holding. Bob obediently snarled at Rolando, warning him not to come too close to his master. Brice scratched behind his ears and murmured "Good boy".

A year on Rolando still had a rather fetching scar on the left side of his jaw where the spikes had hit him from Bob's collar. He handed the file over to Brice and scowled. By all rights this should have been his mission, not some angel boy's. It sucked that Brice was the only one who could enter no-go zones and do cool, illegal missions.

"Thanks, sweetheart," Brice said smugly, taking the file and flicking through it, not really reading it- more like looking at the pretty pictures and working it out himself. It was more fun that way. Brice knew that Rolando would spend hours before a mission reading case files and learning about his charge's history. Brice enjoyed winging it. He read his human's mind and learnt a few titbits, and then he'd get them to tell him the rest once they trusted him. This version was far more fun.

"Who've you got?" Leela asked, leaning over his shoulder to look at the information once Rolando had left. "Eve Jackson? She's cute."

"Yeah," Brice shrugged, not really thinking so. The 'chav' look that girls in the 21st century seemed to enjoy really didn't do it for him. "And Karmen Patel, Sky Nolan and Melanie Beeby: she's our potential, look." He pointed to the silver star next to Melanie's name and tapped it with his finger.

"She's going to be an angel?" Maia asked. "She looks like a total airhead… and that hair, what was she thinking with that style?"

"Yeah, well angels have a bad habit of picking the wrong people as agents," Brice smirked, flicking through the pages for the heck of it. "Oh, look at their school." He showed the group a photo of a battered looking high school comprehensive. Graffiti seemed to be the only source of colour about the place. It was depressing even to look at; Brice dreaded to think what it was like actually being there.

"Hey, check this out," Rufio pulled out a hand drawn flyer advertising auditions for the school play. "Grease?"

"It's from the 1960's; it's about a geeky Aussie girl falling love with a rebel," Leela told him, forgetting that Rufio sometimes didn't know things about earth. "Remember, we watched it in earth studies. It's the one with the song where the girl is taking about how romantic it was last summer and at the same time the boy is telling all his friends how he scored with her."

"Oh yeah, and how if you subtly quote things like that to a geeky earth girl she'll instinctively think of that kind song and think that if she dates a rebel it'll be just like those two in the movie?" Rufio remembered, nodding slowly. "I get it."

"You should audition!" Maia said enthusiastically. "You'd make a great Danny."

"I think I have to," Brice agreed, not sounding too happy about it. "If I'm supposed to mess it up I need to be in the cast to do it."

"Can you sing?" Leela asked.

"Um… No."

"Better get learning, mate," Rufio grinned.

* * *

"Seen as you're slightly older than the group of girls we want you to separate you'll have to make friends with them outside of class," Lucifer explained as Brice checked his hair in the mirror. They were stood in HQ waiting to blast Brice off to the 21st century and Lucifer was giving him a few last minute ideas. Because this was an official mission the cosmic outlaw could use the portals to get their quicker, rather than 'flying' in the time tunnels. Said cosmic outlaw was, however, not listening to a word Lucifer was saying. He knew it all anyway. He was going to be in the class with the kid playing Danny- after he'd told Lucifer on no accounts was he singing in front of a group of humans they'd decided to send him into the production afterwards as a new kid wanting to help out the techies- and had to make sure he lost all his glowy vibes before the show. It shouldn't be a problem; their radars showed that Kelsey Hickman and his brothers had been hyped up for an emotional break down as soon as possible.

Brice nodded boredly as Lucifer continued talking about how it would be easiest to strike up a friendship with Eve, commonly referred to as Jax it seemed, or possibly Sky. That way they'd take them into their little group of friends and he could sabotage them from in the inside. Karmen and Mel looked a little too shy to be the girlfriend type, so he knew he could exploit that and make them feel pretty worthless.

"I get it, make friends with Kelsey, then try and score with this Sky chick," Brice said eventually, interrupting Lucifer's helpful comments about Kelsey's brothers Shay and Jordie.

"Just remember about Shay," Lucifer said sternly.

"Yeah, sure." Lucifer wouldn't tell Brice what Shay was going to do, he said it would ruin the surprise, but the boy guessed it must be something pretty bad because Lucifer kept asking cryptic questions about how Bob was doing- meaning he was looking to find a Hell hound to send up to earth. He'd seen pictures of Shay, though, how could a 12 year old earn himself a Hell hound?

Popping his headphones into his ears, Brice flicked the volume up to max and jammed his iPod into the pocket of his grubby looking school trousers. Lucifer had told him to look like one of the scruffy inner city school kids, and had provided his uniform in a suitably messed up looking condition. Not dirty- he wanted Brice to look like a suave bad boy- but so it looked casually worn in and slightly rebel. Simple tricks like doc martins instead of school shoes, a few badges on his blazer lapels and his tie done up loosely hanging outside his jumper rather than neatly tucked in.

Sitting down on the floor of the portal booth he closed his eyes and listened to the music coming from his headphones. As he listened the song ended and another one started- an old Astral Garbage tune that he'd forgotten to delete when he'd purged his iPod of heavenly metal music and replaced it with the gritty demon rock Rufio gave him. "Shattering coal into diamonds for my angel babe, finding love in dark places in my-" Brice abruptly cut off the song and threw his iPod forcefully into his rucksack, massaging his head to try and push the thoughts out. He was getting one of those headaches again.

Pain flared up in his head whenever he thought about Heaven too deeply- hearing that song had made him remember a time in Heaven when he and Hendrix had watched Astral Garbage in one of the bars. When he'd asked Lucifer about it he'd simply told him that he shouldn't be thinking about Heaven anyway. Brice knew then that the pain he got when he thought about Heaven was his inner-angel trying to break out of the mental chains Lucifer had put him in. He could hear the empty whooshing noise in his head that he always felt when this happened and kneaded his temples to try and force it away to make it quiet again. After a few seconds blissful silence returned and he opened his eyes to find himself on his hands and knees in the portal, panting heavily. Rubbing his eyes he stood up and sternly told himself to get a grip, sighing in relief when the sensor next to him pinged to say he'd arrived at his time zone.

He picked his non-descript black school bag up off the floor and stepped out of the portal, finding himself standing outside Park Hall comprehensive school. The bad vibes soaked over him as he walked towards the school and he inwardly smiled, this stuff felt like chocolate. Cosmic Miasma (the substance left by a meeting of dark agents) had collected all around the streets surrounding the school; a sure sign dark activity enjoyed this place. However, his was concerned to note that patched of it were blurred out by gold sparkles- earth angels had been here. Recently too, from the slight lilac smell of it. He frowned, but shrugged it away, telling himself he'd have the school nice and cloudy by the end of the week.

A group of girls barged past him, talking animatedly and all sporting the same shocking pink accessories in their hair and on their school bags. It only took a few seconds to guess which girl was which. The red-head, Sky, the meek Asian girl, Karmen, the animated punk girl, Jax, and the shy airhead trying her best to say something cool. Melanie. Seizing the opportunity Brice quickened his pace and accidently on purpose walked into Jax, sending her books flying from her arms and onto the floor. As he hit her he noted that the security tag was still on the edge of her coat.

"Watch where you're going, loser!" Sky snapped, standing up for her friend and turning to glare at Brice. He almost laughed when her look of anger suddenly softened as she stared at him. Her thoughts were so clear she might as well have shouted them out loud: _Woo, hottie!_

"Not my fault, sweetheart," he retorted in the same tone of voice, noting that she looked slightly put out that he wasn't giving her the same slightly puppy-dog look she was giving him. He picked the books up off the floor like he was concerned they would make him dirty and disdainfully held them out to Jax. "Looks like you'll need to re-back them," he observed, pointing to the mud stain on the bright pink backing paper.

"Are you… new?" Jax asked, not caring a bit that her books were a bit dirty. "I don't think I've seen you before."

"Yeah, just moved here," Brice replied, shrugging. "My old school kicked me out so my folks sent me here."

"Where did you used to go?" Karmen asked, showing a rare burst of confidence. This boy's accent seemed to have a slightly posh lilt to it that hinted he wasn't from this side of London.

"Some fancy school for angel kids," Brice replied, giving a wolfish smile. "I didn't fit in."

_Apologise._

_Huh? _Brice was momentarily confused for a moment, until he realised that once again his headmaster had been eavesdropping. _What for?_

_For knocking her books. Do it._

_No! I know what I'm doing. Leave me to it. _Brice replied, defiantly switching his Link off in his mind so that Lucifer couldn't bug him anymore. Of course, being the dark prince Lucifer could find a way around it, but hopefully he'd gotten the message to leave Brice alone.

"So, I need to go and find some admin office," Brice added quickly, steering the conversation so he could get away quickly. He was planning to find Sky at the end of the day and ask her out for coffee- using it as an apology or something so he could het her on her own. That way he could scope out her mind without her giggling friends getting their thoughts in the way.

"I'll show you," Mel piped up, her thoughts going so haywire that it was hard for Brice to try and keep up. Words like 'dreamy' 'luminous' 'bad boy' and 'omigosh' kept flashing up in her mind- it was making Brice rather dizzy.

"Thanks, Sweetheart," He nodded, not making eye contact and instead giving Karmen a quick once-over with his eyes. He winked at her as he walked past with Mel and watched her blush as Sky and Jax stared at her.

_This is going to be easier than I thought, _he grinned to himself.


End file.
